Comprehensive player reviews, video game backlog slaying, and thoughts on video game culture.
Hey, friends! It’s been ages and I hope you have all been well. While I’m still not in the writing mood very often, I wanted to show readers what hobby activities I’ve been up to this past year, which is mainly growing a LOT of houseplants, and also playing the tin whistle and making nerdy video game, anime, and film song covers!
Continue reading “Post-Pandemic Check-in: Orchids, tin whistle, and video game music! ♪”Valheim is all the rage right now and I’ve been having a fantastic time with it and our friends who are also playing. It’s the first game my boyfriend and I have found mutual interest in, in like… 5 years? (It’s tragic that we have nearly opposite tastes in games.)
In fact, I’ve never felt drawn to the survival game genre. The only one I’ve ever really enjoyed is Ark: Survival Evolved, and that’s only because I’m highly dinosaur (and dragon) motivated. Spent the whole game taming dinos and nothing else. Valheim, however. Valheim I find so enjoyable that it’s inspired me to write about games for the first time in over a year!
You may have noticed, but I have been on hiatus over the past several months, for which I apologize profusely. I wanted to thank those who continue to stop by and catch up on my posts. I started this blog back in spring of 2019 and I was writing so much, so frequently, that eventually I hit burnout about two months after my PAX West trip last year.
In addition, my hobby interests have turned away from gaming and writing to other things for a time, namely Tarot (the happy fault of Sayonara Wild Hearts), drawing, and online community building. I tend to go through periods of “hobby rotation” where I’m really into one thing or another for a half year or so and then move to something else, eventually circling back to an intense focus on gaming. I do plan on writing more in the future when the burnout wears off.
It would warm my heart to see some of you on Instagram in the mean time. I’ve included a few of my art posts from Instagram between paragraphs below for anyone interested. 🙂
Yennefer. Who is she, really? In the Witcher 3 we see her relentlessly pursuing her goals across multiple continents, taking down any obstacles in her way. Yes, she cares passionately for her love, Geralt, but he won’t distract her from her ultimate goals. Despite their closeness, she keeps extremely important secrets from the Witcher during their travels, yet he trusts her implicitly. She is strong and wise, confident and skilled, and a timeless beauty. Their romance is legendary in the Witcher universe, literally.
Continue reading “Wolven Storm – Musings on Love and Feminism in Witcher 3”
I must confess: I am a sucker for all things cyberpunk, so enthusiasm might cloud my judgment, but I cannot help but feel that Neo Cab is one of the coolest games I’ve played in a while. It is a game that does not only capture the general aesthetic of the setting (think neon lights, cheesy synths, high-tech gizmos), but its fundamental core: a struggle of an individual faced with a soul-crushing march of high-tech corporations. And Neo Cab achieves that not by projecting an image of some distant dystopian future. Instead, it narrows the gap between reality and the imagination until I could not help but think that the world it has described is waiting for us just around the corner.
Continue reading “Neo Cab (PC) Review – A Dystopian Uber Simulator”
In a month overflowing with anticipated, high quality releases, Sayonara Wild Hearts is a shining gem you should have on your radar. This game is an expertly shaken cocktail of neon colors, trippy, dreamlike environments, a catchy synth-pop soundtrack, and skillful level design. While Sayonara is on the brief side with about an hour of total playtime required to complete the campaign, it is a truly magical experience that blew me away with its dynamic art style, captivating music, generous variety of mechanics, and heart-pumping action!
Continue reading “Sayonara Wild Hearts (Switch) Review – heartfelt, magical, and mesmerizing”
When I first saw the announcement trailer for Creature in the Well during the Nindies showcase earlier this year, it immediately piqued my interest with its derelict setting and intriguing pinball-based gameplay. When I tried the Creature in the Well at Flight School Studio’s booth at PAX West recently, I loved it and figured it would be a hit upon release. Now that it’s out and I’m going to double down on that opinion. Put on your dungeon spelunking gear and get ready to delve into the darkness of Creature in the Well, one of my favorite indie releases of 2019!
Continue reading “Creature in the Well (Switch) Review – the “pinbrawler” we never knew we always wanted”
Vambrace: Cold Soul, is a roguelike that caught my interest because of its highly stylized, graphic novel-esque art style and grimdark atmosphere. You play as Lyric, a young woman searching for clues about her late father’s mysterious past, who ends up trapped in Icenaire, a city surrounded by enchanted walls of ice that kill anyone who touches them…
Continue reading “Vambrace: Cold Soul Review (Switch) – icebound dungeon crawling”
I saw this fascinating Gamer Motivation Model by Quantic Foundry over on Krikket’s blog and instantly thought the topic would make for a GREAT new gaming blogger tag! You can take a thorough survey about your gaming preferences on Quantic Foundry’s website that will map out the motivations behind your video game preferences and gaming behavior.
I took the survey myself and was interested in the accuracy and articulation of the descriptions for each type of motivation. I’ve created a set of questions for the gaming blogger community and answered them using my results to get things started!
When Kindergarten came out in 2017, it struck me by surprise. A small, unknown game turned out to be one of the smartest realizations of groundhog day concept in video games I’ve seen. In combination with a twisted sense of humor and witty writing, turned it into one of my year’s highlights. Obviously, when I’ve heard about the release of a sequel, I cleared my schedule specifically to play it. In retrospect, it wasn’t the smartest decision.
Continue reading “Kindergarten 2 Review (PC) – not so graceful homecoming”
Backlog Crusader 