5- The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (Nintendo EAD, Nintendo Wii, 2006) Despite the fact that it was originally designed as a Gamecube game, I loved Twilight Princess. The beautifully-crafted themed dungeons, the frequent story moment cutscenes, the varied gameplay, the mini-games, the music, I loved it all. And yet I never played Ocarina of […]

Read the rest of Top Fifty: 1-5

Roger Ebert’s recent article claiming that games can never be art has spawned conversation and argument all over the interwebs of late. While listening to a recent episode of Gameshark‘s Jumping the Shark podcast recently, something Brandon said caught my attention. If you want to hear it, download episode 14 and skip ahead to 58:00. I’ll paraphrase […]

Read the rest of An Emotional Moment

Most game settings are just fluff. Even some of the games I really like have dreadfully generic settings. When you read about Borderlands, the description of Pandora sounds really interesting. In the game, it’s beautiful to look at, but doesn’t have much character. The world in Dungeon Siege is huge, but kind of boring. Even […]

Read the rest of My Favorite Game Settings

This is the third part in my series on what themes tie together my all-time favorite video games. In April 2008, Blogs of the Round Table covered “Variations on a Theme”, and discussed what themes tie together your favorite games. I’m a bit late to the party, but I’m catching up now. Early on, I […]

Read the rest of Variations on a Theme, Part III: Atmosphere

You may have never heard of Blogs of the Round Table. It’s a cross-blog event that encourages blog authors to write about specific topics each month. BoRT has undergone a format change recently, but I’ve been examining many of the older entries, and in playing catch-up, have decided to begin by writing on the April […]

Read the rest of Variations on a Theme, Part I: Conspiracy

Keepers is a weekly segment in which I discuss games I’ve played that I’ve seen fit to keep after playing. I generally sell a game that I’ve finished, so the only reason I keep one is because I plan to replay the game some day. Classifying a game as a “keeper” is generally a badge […]

Read the rest of Keepers: Half-Life 2

It should be no secret that I’m a huge fan of the Half-Life franchise. There’s a new Half-Life fan film on the block, and its going to give Escape from City 17 a run for its money. Neither are as good as my favorite Half-Life 2 video of all-time, Half-Life in 60 Seconds, but they’re […]

Read the rest of What’s in the Box?

This is the best thing I’ve seen on YouTube in a long time. Being a huge fan of Half-Life, seeing a really well-produced fanfilm made in that universe makes me giggle like a little girl. Look at the Combine Airship! From what I’ve heard, the Purchase brothers made this film on a $500 budget, which […]

Read the rest of Escape From City 17

For years, I’ve been following the work being done by the talented folks over at Black Mesa: Source. What they’ve been working on is a full remake of the original Half-Life game, using the source engine. Most importantly, they’re re-creating all game assets. Voice tracks, music, character models, textures, multiplayer maps, artificial intelligence, everything. Plus, […]

Read the rest of Black Mesa: Source

For as long as there have been video games, there have been ridiculous and stupid video game bosses. From the FBI Agent in Atari’s E.T. to Letz Shake in No More Heroes, who blew himself up before you ever got to fight him, ludicrous game bosses have a long and rich history. I’ve taken it […]

Read the rest of Worst Videogame Bosses