Recent Blog Entries

I am sure you are all familiar with the common adage, “It is not about the destination, it is about the journey” (or some variation of that sentiment). At the heart of the statement is the notion that a person should not focus solely on the outcome, and instead realize that the experiences encountered and lessons learned on the road to the destination have value. Compared to books, films, or music, video games are the form of media which provides a distinctive method to embody this concept. …

Hello! Let’s all tread together the treacherous path of the final day of the work week joined by some great music!
It's Friday! The weekend approaches and hype can only get higher with a song like Undertale's Death by Glamour! I don't mean the eternal struggle of a FFXIV player looking for the best thing to wear, but the theme from the boss battle against Mettaton Ex.

A homicidal robot that also doubles as the host of the underground's most popular TV show, Mettaton was created by Dr. Alphy…

Hello boys and girls, I am back with more The Division experience under my arms. Wanna know what I think of the game now that I am out of Brooklyn and out into the wonderfully dark and dangerous New York? In game, I mean.

Once out of Brooklyn (after the game was finished downloading) I was ready to start the game proper, heading towards what would be the Base of Operations (which we affectionately call "The Tower") where you open the game's three skill trees: Medical, Security and Tech. Each of…

Hello! Let’s all tread together the treacherous path of the final day of the work week joined by some great music!
Were you expecting a track from The Division? Fair assumption, given it has been the topic of many tweets of mine during this week. Alas, like I stated in my impression's post, I haven't really played that much due to the client not being fully downloaded (by the way, it finished this morning). Instead I 'll go back a bit to World of Warcraft.

The new expansion for Hearthstone,…

New York has fallen. An unknown virus, distributed via money bills during Black Friday, has caused widespread casualties and forced the government to lock down the city. In the face of disaster an elite group of people is activated to take control: The Division. Ubisoft's latest game has proven to be very successful for them and is making news this week. Is it good?

My experiences in the Beta went from 'meh this isn't worth it' to 'this is becoming interesting quickly' as I played more, and t…

Yesterday a tweep (is that still a word? I like it) shared this video with me regarding stuff Destiny 'needs' from the perspective of a Youtuber. It's a good video and while I don't share all points and ideas there's one that resonated with me.
As a game in what some have taken to call the 'loot shooter' genre, Destiny bases its existence on players playing to get better loot. It's a horizontal progression system with a touch of vertical progression in the form of Light Levels. But as you ap…

I have a very long history with Harvest Moon – the quintessential farm rpg, so that at this point I pick up each iteration and make a study of how each entry in the series builds off previous games, and how the designer implements the different features that makes each of the games unique. I was intrigued when I saw this game had come out, my friend asked me if I had tried it yet and I knew I couldn’t pass on this game.

The game’s art style gives the first impression that it is modeled off th…

Hello! Let’s all tread together the treacherous path of the final day of the work week joined by some great music!
Did you hear? The Legend of Zelda - Twilight Princess HD comes out today for Wii U! "No one cares!" Come on, now... there's a lot of people who own Wii Us and are looking forward for anything to keep them entertained, and TP is actually a very good Zelda game. It's no Ocarina of Time but since it follows the same formula, the game's pretty fun and... well... it's a Zelda game.

…

FFXIV

1. Patch 3.2 Information
2. FFXIV Random Complaint Thread II: DPS can't count to potato
3. Alexander Midas (Savage): We Power Rangers now.
4. Letter from the Producer LIVE Part XXVII
5. Patch 3.2 Notes (Preliminary)
6. The Official Forum fail thread: This game wasn't meant for alts.
7. Patch is live, let the mining commence!
8. FFXIV Random Praise Thread: ninja ninja ninja ninja dark knight ninja ninja dark knight
9. FFXIV Seal Rock PVP Insights
10. Paladin 3.0 - Now with +1 Button

After a very meh 3.X FFXIV is somew…

The Gears of Change have started to turn in Final Fantasy XIV and the end of the Dragonsong War looms in the horizon. Adventurers have been given a lot of new things to do, from fresh players learning the basic ropes to seasoned raiders facing the new areas within the mechanical Primal: Alexander. What did I think of it? Is the patch a success?

Main Story Quests (MSQ)

Afte…

I first saw Neo Scavenger at PAX East, it was really up my alley, and even more surprising it is made in Flash! It is a roguelike adventure game that features a realistic inventory system and has players trying to survive in a post-apocalyptic world. The game has the player scavenging the fallen rubble of buildings to try to subsist; it is easy to die due to hypothermia, infection, or thirst.



The game is, no surprise, very brutal. Because it’s brutal you quickly learn to flee from people wh…

Xenoblade Chronicles X is one of the games of 2015 which I was most eagerly awaiting. It’s predecessor, Xenoblade Chronicles on the Wii, was probably my favorite game of 2012, and this game looked to build upon many of the things which made its forerunner so great. Its dramatic gameplay reveal at E3 in 2014 knocked me off my feet and left me anxious for any new piece of information over the next year and a half. Having poured an obscene amount of time into it, I can genuinely say that Xenobl…

SPOILER WARNING: Videos with music AND gameplay from 3.2's newest battles are featued today. If you haven't done them you may wanna just listen to the music and change tabs or something.

Hello! Let’s all tread together the treacherous path of the final day of the work week joined by some great music!
Patch 3.2, The Gears of Change, dropped this week in Final Fantasy XIV and the reception has been quite positive! Lots of new things to do, new dungeons to explore, lots of new gear/minions, ne…

Hello! Let’s all tread together the treacherous path of the final day of the work week joined by some great music!

Gears of Change, Final Fantasy XIV's patch 3.2, is coming next week! Lots of changes, both big and small! The preliminary patch notes are up and they can take a good time to read in their entirety! So with the hype at the usual pre-patch hype, I wanted to feature this track from 3.1, specifically from the 24-man raid "Void Ark".

A fun adventure, much like the Crystal Tower was …

Destiny's Crimson Days event (Valentine's Day) has come and gone, and people were still having a bad taste in their mouths because, pretty decorations in the Tower aside, the event was little more than a two-man variant of the Elimination mode (or the weekend's Trials of Osiris).

By now you all have probably heard that Destiny, that scy-fy space first person shooter MMO (that refuses to be considered an MMO) which is developed by former Halo developer Bungie, is going through some weird time…

Hello! Let’s all tread together the treacherous path of the final day of the work week joined by some great music!

Upcoming Final Fantasy XIV patch, "Gears of Change" (3.2) got its trailer revealed today and between all the awesome new stuff that's coming to us there's a preview of the boss of the new Antitower dungeon: Calcobrena. Also known as Calcabrena (or other names non-SNES players use these days) the boss is a group of creepy dancing dolls that, if left too long to their devices, wil…

It's-a-me, Saga! Let’s all tread together the treacherous path of the final day of the work week joined by some great music!
Friday is here and it's time for some cheery music! How about the BGM for Super Mario 64's first world, Bob-omb Battlefield - also known as Super Mario 64's Main Theme? Maybe not as universally known as the music of the first level for the original NES Mario game, this track is the first upbeat track in the first 3D Mario game.

Mario 64 begins with soft themes (from…

Yes I know I'm late. I worked 40 hours in the last 3 days and I sploded my keyboard.

FFXIV

1. 4Gamer Interview: Yoshida responds to player questions/requests
2. FFXIV Random Complaint Thread II: DPS can't count to potato
3. The Official Forum fail thread: This game wasn't meant for alts.
4. Letter from the Producer LIVE Part XXVI
5. Letter from the Producer LIVE Part XXVII
6. FFXIV Seal Rock PVP Insights
7. Anima Weapon Discussion
8. Increased isolationism
9. Random Fail: your words are false
10. The crafting & gathering th…

Blade & Soul entered the MMO arena with boo... erm... guns blazing. A Korean F2P (Free to Play) MMO with dynamic combat that is more akin to Street Fighter than TERA, a beautiful world and characters that... look different. Celebrating one million players a week after release, is this the end-all-be-all that MMO fans are looking for? My impressions, from playing the early game as a Force Master up to level 19:
Did you play TERA? Did you like TERA? Have I got a treat for you! B&S is pretty m…

If you think about it, secret bosses have always been something of a peculiarity. Ignoring for a moment the ones who wander around on their own, unrelated to the crux of a game’s narrative (like the Long Gui in Final Fantasy XIII), most secret bosses do not fit into any sort of reasonable hierarchy. Seriously think about this for a moment -- why doesn’t the head villain have its most powerful minion either leading the army or serving as his or her personal bodyguard? Given the added challeng…