As I had rated both of its predecessors – Fallout 3 and Fallout: New Vegas quite highly, one can imagine that Fallout 4 had a high bar to clear in order to rate as well as the preceding installments of the series. Fortunately, it clears the bar with room to spare. Like the rest of the series, Fallout 4 is set in a world where the Retro-Future of the 1940s came true: nuclear-powered cars for everyone, household robots, shining-steel and glowing-tube SUPER SCIENCE inventions brought a true golden age. And it then crosses that with [ Continue reading... ]
On My Shelves: Dragon Age II
September 29, 2015 By 1 Comment
While I had enjoyed Dragon Age: Origins (and its DLC add-ons) immensely (see my prior review), things I had heard about Dragon Age II made me somewhat reluctant to get it; the most weighty of these being that unlike the prior game, Dragon Age II limited you to a single character, not to the several different choices of character (classes of Rogue, Warrior, Mage and species of Elf, Dwarf, and Human, with Dwarves unable to become Mages, and other choices of social class creating multiple combinations of character type, each of which had [ Continue reading... ]
Just For Fun: My Top Ten Videogame Music Selections
September 3, 2015 By 1 Comment
As I have mentioned more than once, when writing I usually listen to music. I look for music that inspires and shapes my imagination, often becoming themes for events or characters or settings. As the technology has progressed, I have found that video games often provide some surprisingly inspirational themes. Here, then, are my top ten favorite pieces of music from various video games! Silent the Universe: Star Ocean 2 Opening Theme. Composed by Motoi Sakuraba, this beautiful piece of music opens the game with a deep-space object [ Continue reading... ]
On My (Virtual) Shelves: Homestuck
March 11, 2015 By Leave a Comment
"A young man stands in his bedroom. It just so happens that today, the 13th of April, 2009, is this young man's birthday. Though it was thirteen years ago he was given life, it is only today he will be given a name!" So begins Homestuck. Homestuck is a phenomenon. It's not precisely a webcomic, although it started as one. It's not a video game, although there are games embedded in it and it starts with the obvious conceit that you are playing a videogame called "Homestuck"; the opening quote is the text of the first page [ Continue reading... ]
Under the Influence: SunDog: Frozen Legacy
March 6, 2015 By 6 Comments
Many years ago, I was one of the relatively few whose personal computer was not an IBM-clone or an Apple, nor even an Amiga, but an Atari ST; a lot of people don't even realize that Atari did indeed build full-fledged computers in those days, and quite good ones. Of course, being a splinter market, they did not always get all the software one might want. But they did have, for a short time, the company called FTL Games, and that meant two milestone games: Dungeon Master, one of the first 3-D dungeon-crawl games (and precursor of other [ Continue reading... ]
GamerGate: My Comments
October 27, 2014 By 1 Comment
WARNING: Some strong language, especially for me, ahead. I rarely make what could be considered political or activist posts. This is mainly because of two things; I am rarely 100% certain of everything I say, contrary to many people's impressions of me. On important subjects, I hear people talking, with apparent authority, and saying things that come to opposite conclusions. I'm not equipped any better than most of these people to decide who's right and who's wrong. I may come to a conclusion of [ Continue reading... ]
On My Shelves: The World Ends With You
January 10, 2014 By Leave a Comment
This review is for the "Solo Remix" version available on the iPad, as that's the platform I played it on. The World Ends With You, often abbreviated as "TWEWY", is an unusual computer roleplaying game (CRPG). Really, it's something more of a visual novel interspersed with rather interesting combat sequences; there are no real choices as far as I can tell, but the story is fascinating. (The link there goes to Wiki as I don't know how one could link to the App store for the iVersion of the game) [ Continue reading... ]
On My Shelves: Persona 4 Arena
January 4, 2013 By 2 Comments
WARNING: Completely uncritical raving ahead! When I saw that the Persona series was going to have its own fighting game, I was pretty skeptical; what's an RPG series going to do with a fighting game that makes it worth getting as such? But hey, I didn't have any fighting games for PS3, so I put it on my Christmas list; at least it would feature characters I knew, so that was a plus. Before I go on, I will state that as a fighting game, it's a solid entry. It's of the "Street Fighter" style, [ Continue reading... ]
On My Shelves: Chrono Cross
November 19, 2012 By 2 Comments
I have mentioned previously that I consider Chrono Trigger one of the greatest videogames ever made. One can imagine my anticipation, then, when finally, after several years, a sequel to Chrono Trigger was announced. I reserved Chrono Cross and played it as soon as it came out. As I mentioned in my discussion of Chrono Trigger, I found Chrono Cross disappointing as a sequel; basically it undid or made worse than useless the achievements of your original group of heroes in Chrono Trigger. I had hoped for an actual sequel that [ Continue reading... ]
Under the Influence: Computer/Console RPG Thoughts
November 12, 2012 By 4 Comments
I've already reviewed and talked about several videogame RPGs, ranging from the venerable yet still amazing Chrono Trigger to the Elder Scrolls games Oblivion and Skyrim, the Fallout series, and Dragon Age. Undoubtedly I'll review more later; I have quite a few on my shelves from the past many years. Today, however, I want to muse on the things I've liked, the things I don't like or find missing, and what I really would like to see in future CRPGs. To me, the ideal CRPG would be one that allows [ Continue reading... ]
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