Coming back to Minecraft
May 9, 2019
I never thought I would be playing this game again, not in 2019 and not when I have a game library that is collecting cobwebs. Its graphics aren’t that appealing to me, there’s no story and no end goal. Lacking those three things, it’s not one that I usually would be enjoying. But it just got an...
This is a game to “Return.” to
April 24, 2019
There’s an adorable unsung hero in the messy aisles of free games that can be found in the Steam game marketplace. “Return.” published on Steam in August of 2018, is a platformer game that feels like it came out of a pleasant dream. “Return.” is very short. There is only really one level...
The Apex of Battle Royales
April 4, 2019
The enemy team didn’t see me, and I could barely believe it. My teammates had just been wiped out after we assumed the Pathfinder we saw enter the building had been alone. I ran onto the roof of the dilapidated house after they went down. There was nothing I could do solo against another team of...
Left 4 Dead 2 still great after 10 years
March 21, 2019
It will be 10 years this November since “Left 4 Dead 2” released online and there’s no better time to look back at the fond memories it has given its players and see how the game holds up. “Left 4 Dead 2” was released by Valve, creator of online game market Steam and the cult classic series...
Pocket Camp: almost perfect
February 8, 2019
Animal Crossing was my first love. Wild World was released in 2005, but I first picked up a Nintendo DS somewhere around 2008. I was nine years old. After almost four years of playing and over 500 hours logged in a single cartridge, I bought another at a Gamestop in 2011, right before “Animal Crossing:...
Bounce, roll, and wobble around to your heart’s content with “Pikuniku”
February 8, 2019
A new indie platformer game entered the scene on Jan. 24 entitled “Pikuniku.” It is the first game developed by the indie collective Sectordub. “Pikuniku” was published by Digital Devolver, a publisher well known for “Hotline Miami” and “Serious Sam HD” and is available on PC and the...
“Deltarune”: journey to the dark world
December 6, 2018
Fans of indie video games got a surprise on Halloween as developer Toby Fox released the first chapter of "Deltarune," a successor to his first game "Undertale." The release came only with a series of mysterious tweets on the "Undertale" Twitter account on Oct. 30th, promising a new announcement in...
Look out! It’s Spider-Man!
November 9, 2018
Over the course of the past decade, the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) has become a cultural phenomenon across the globe. Since "Iron Man" premiered in 2008, Marvel Studios has dominated the movie industry, averaging around $873 million in worldwide box office revenue from the 20 superhero films relea...
“Far Cry 5” exceeds expectations
April 26, 2018
On March 27, 2018, videogame developers Ubisoft Montreal and Toronto released the latest installment in their “Far Cry” series for Playstation 4, Xbox One and Microsoft Windows. Similar to the previous iterations, “Far Cry 5” is an open-world action-adventure first-person shooter game. Taking...
This game’s got ballz
February 8, 2018
Many anime fans of college age get a sentimental feeling when they reminisce over staying up late whenever possible to catch the Dragon Ball Z rerun or a new Dragon Ball Kai episode. After every episode you wait in anticipation to have an extremely uncivil discussion with your friend about why Goku shouldn’t...
FPS, team play, character: This game has it all
September 22, 2016
“Overwatch: soldiers, scientists, adventurers, oddities . . . guardians who secured global peace for a generation.” Blizzard Entertainment, creator of World of Warcraft, Diablo, and Starcraft, released Overwatch in May 2016. The quote above, from the game’s official cinematic trailer, refers...
PoGo is sticking around
September 8, 2016
The beginning of a new semester always brings changes to the campus. Sometimes they come in the form of renovated sidewalks, sometimes in changes of staff or faculty, and sometimes when hordes of Pokèmon move onto campus to hide in the grass of the quad. “It’s been years since Pokèmon was really...
“To the Moon”: indie game with big heart
March 25, 2016
What is the first thing that comes to mind when someone says the words “video game”? Probably a popular game like “Call of Duty” or maybe a controversial one like “Grand Theft Auto”? The last game that most people would think of is a small indie game called “To the Moon.” “To the...
A fistful of tokens
April 23, 2015
Your palms are sweating. Your eyes are focused with unnatural intensity on the little silver ball pinging back and forth across the board. You can feel that last India pale ale working its magic on your eye-hand-flipper coordination, but somehow you’ve defied the odds and beaten the high score. The...
“Dark Souls II” is enchanted by death
April 24, 2014
I have checked my equipment three times now in preparation for what lies behind the fog. I know my chances of surviving are slim at best, but I do not have a choice in the matter; the only way forward is through. Readying my shield, I advance into the mist. My enemy towers above me, a wooden giant composed...
“Castlevania,” Lords of the Button Masher
March 15, 2014
If you have played any action titles in the last couple of years then the game play for Castlevania Lords of Shadow (LOS) will seem very familiar. For those who haven’t branched out from the nostalgic side scrolling greats of the past, Mario, Sonic or past incarnations of Castlevania you will be sorely...
Students flip over the bird
February 19, 2014
"F#$&! Sh*&! Motherf*&%$#!!" my suite-mate shouted as he threw down his iPad. He had been playing "Flappy Bird," the newest and hottest mobile game, for nearly two hours. For a couple weeks the mobile game has flapped its way to Johnson State College and has caused cases of anger and fr...
“GTA V” best route to suicide
September 25, 2013
So "Grand Theft Auto V" comes in the mail and I know the time has come to dump my girlfriend, only I don’t have a girlfriend because I’ve been saving my freedom for "GTA V." I whistle the "Andy Griffith" theme as I skip out of the mailroom. I cross the campus. The sun’s shining, so I flip it the bird....
“Bioshock: Infinite” same bland FPS, now in Sky flavor!
May 3, 2013
As a work-study college student who isn’t allowed to live on campus because I am a super x8 senior, I am exceedingly poor, and often have to subsist on a light meal plan of freshly emerged voles, and the tears of my eternally empty wallet. This makes keeping up with the latest games somewhat difficult,...
“Fire Emblem” medieval goodness
April 18, 2013
"Fire Emblem: Awakening" is the latest in a long series of Japanese tactical combat games, and a game I recommend so highly that I think you should throw money at the game like doing so would give every orphan on Earth their loving parents back. If you weren’t aware that any games came before this o...
“Colonial Marines”: Game over, man!
March 14, 2013
Man, it seems that I have been on a real negative kick lately, and this week doesn’t look like it is going to break that trend at all. Sorry, I’ve simply had a very bad run of it lately, and I suppose you all will simply have to be entertained by my suffering once again. The source of my agony this ...
Una Lee changes the world, one video game at a time
December 6, 2012
Una Lee sees the world as a series of systems, and video games as a creative way of exploring alternatives to the systems we already have in place. Lee came to campus Nov. 14 to talk to students and faculty members about why she thinks that artists, activists and other creative outsiders to the video...
The future is lame in “Black Ops 2”
December 6, 2012
As a critic, I have a responsibility to keep my finger on the pulse of popular culture, and then diagnose exactly what is wrong with it, or right with it; we critics aren’t always cynical buggers with snide comments ready in our hate-gun. We have to examine what we are reviewing from multiple angles...
“Assassin’s Creed 3” revolutionary gaming
November 15, 2012
Putting all my cards on the table, I am a huge “Assassin’s Creed” fanboy. There is not much they could have done outside of shipping out a gamebox full of camel spiders to my front door that would have made me dislike the game. Well, that or ship out a game that was technically broken, or a regression...
Kid Icarus: Uprising – surprisingly awesome
October 6, 2012
It’s time to give Nintendo some love. For the past two reviews, I’ve been focusing on the X-Box 360 (mostly because I don’t have a PS3), but now I think it is time to turn our gaze onto the best damn handheld system out there right now: the Nintendo 3DS (The PS Vita? What’s that?). This week,...
“Sleeping Dogs” delivers kung fu justice to the face
September 22, 2012
Welcome to the mean streets of Hong Kong. The city is home to more than 7,000,000 people, and it seems that you have to personally punch every single one of them in order to enact social justice. Does that sounds like a good time? Then you will probably love “Sleeping Dogs,” a new open-world actio...
Max Payne 3 – Misanthropy never hurt so good
September 7, 2012
It has been nearly a decade since we last saw our brooding, bullet-dodging friend Max Payne. We last left him in the burning ruins of a mansion, cradling the body of a woman who had promised to kill him, piling more pathos onto his already full plate. So, what has the gritty metaphor-spewing buddy been...
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