Best of 2015 – Videogames

Well that time of year again, I’m typing this up in the first week of January. When I actually finish and post it is anyone’s guess. 2015 was a pretty solid year in terms of gaming as a whole. Lots of great games were released, several of which will easily become “classics”. Most major publishers and platform holders started making serious moves towards promoting VR. Sony had perhaps the greatest E3 ever. Several white whales were spotted and beached (Shenmue 3, FFVII Remake, Last Guardian alive and well). Overall a solid year. But it was also the year of the delay, so many titles got pushed back 2016. Which, when you add in the titles planned for 2016, makes the upcoming year look like a monster. Continue reading…

[Let’s play] Darkest Dungeon – The Fall of the House of McDonnell – Week 01 – 25

Wherein we shall detail the grim and sobering fate of the House of McDonnell as they seek to suppress their tainted inheritance (with names drawn recklessly from Facebook)

Father is gone. I hadn’t seen him in decades, since he sent me to the seminary and I began my ministry in the city. But I must return, that house, that place, must be cleansed, expunged from creation itself. I can hear it calling me. Calling me home.

I will not be able to do it alone, I have sent out missives to friend and family, asking them to join me in this endeavour. I fear it is an act of utmost selfishness, one wich they will in time damn me for. But I have no more time to waste on idle recrimination. I must return and the stage is ready. Continue reading…

Best of 2014 – Videogames

2014 felt like a very long year in terms of gaming, yet I didn’t really get through a whole pile of games. Perhaps my memory is going. What a sweet release. Or perhaps it was just that my pattern of play as it were changed quite a bit this year. I covered my thoughts on last year’s spending on games over here. I suppose one final note on that point was that I hit the deal hunter thing hard. Making solid use of sites like http://isthereanydeal.com/, http://www.cheapshark.com/, http://www.reddit.com/r/GameDeals/, etc. as well as (the now sadly neutered) Steam trading sites like http://dispenser.tf/ and http://www.tf2outpost.com/ and importing I got as much gaming bang for my buck as I possibly could. Continue reading…

Best of 2011 – Games

I summed up video gaming in 2010 in one word, disappointment. For 2011 I’ll bump it up to two words, excellent and disappointing. There were a large number of releases I was looking forward to and thankfully the majority of them delivered, though not always as well as I was hoping. As always this list is a composite of things I’ve played in the year in question, not just what was released in the year, it probably doesn’t matter in the long run. As well as the Top 10 list itself I’ve also included an appendix of sorts where I give a line or two (and the first implementation of my new rating system, ooh the excitement) to all the game’s I’ve completed this year (and perhaps the ones I’ve played enough off to be comfortable making a judgement on). Also returning to education, in tandem with commuting, has eaten up a lot of prime game playing time, as such I’m a bit behind with the games I’ve played. I may get some of the backlog finished by the end of the month (currently December 6th). Continue reading…

Schedules of the idle poor

I think that everyone who plays even a moderate amount of computer games has a backlog of games that they have yet to play or complete. Some of these will never be completed, they were rented for an evening or borrowed from a friend (or GOD FORBID, pirated) – they didn’t grab you and youre not going back. Other’s though are quality games that came out during a particular glut of such and didn’t get played or completed. Or perhaps you’re a fan of particular genre’s that tend to have massive playtimes (Strategy titles, RPG’s, etc.) and thus exacerbate the problem of an ever growing backlog. If you are reading this wondering what the fuck I’m talking about then you should a) rejoice in not being shouldered with a similar Sisyphean load and b) tip on (or read on, “whatevs” as the cool kids say). Continue reading…