Hope for tomorrow in Ys: The Oath in Felghana

“Historically, we see a lot of really hopeful, almost twee fantasy in times of economic hardship. And boy, are we ever in a time of economic hardship “ -Rae Carson Seven years ago, when the game was first made, unleashing

Archie Does it Better: The Top 7 Best Sonic Characters (that aren’t in the games)

Welcome to the planet Mobius, a world unique and beyond what you know from the SEGA games . . .

This is the opening line that greets anyone with the good fortune to have experienced the fantastic universe Archie Comics has built for Sonic the Hedgehog over the last 20 years. The planet Mobius is one populated by a (literally and metaphorically) colorful group of characters far cast from the despised, one-dimensional neon woodland creatures we’ve seen in Sonic’s completely undefined game universe. The talented writers at Archie kept the crazy character designs, but added the necessary depth and personality needed to make Sonic and his friends into memorable characters and created several amazing originals. Today we’re going to look at eight of the latter.

The zoology of Dragon Quest IX

I have a confession to make: I have an undying love for the palette-swapped monsters in Dragon Quest IX. The monsters are cute, for starters, devoid of the baroque stylings of their Final Fantasy brethren, and they’ve made a consistent

After Pressing Start: Prince of Persia Sands of Time

One of my favorite things about Prince of Persia: Sands of Time is the ability to rewind time. It’s immensely enjoyable to undo your small mistakes rather than having to restart a level or reload a saved game. It’s a mechanic

A History of Mutual Looting, and What Videogames Can Learn From Non-D&D Tabletop RPGs

The historical relationship between videogames and tabletop RPGs is not hard to spot, and they work together very naturally (1): computers present the opportunity to automate the underlying mechanics of game play.  Although the majority of games based on tabletop

Soundscapes – The graphics card is your new sound card

It’s possible to use any AMD or Nvidia graphics card for sound, but this feature isn’t discussed at all. When I bought a new surround receiver the other week for my PC audio setup, I decided to test this feature

Fans, Capitalism, and Mass Effect 3’s Ending. Oh My.

How can something like this happen? My finger begins to cramp from scrolling through all the screaming and virtual facepalming over the Mass Effect 3 ending debacle on Twitter. I eventually felt pressured to race through the game just to

To the end (and back again) – Endless play in Nidhogg

If you were to trace my interest in video game endings over time, the graph would resemble a cascading wave of disinterest. I came into the gaming landscape at an age where my heightened sense of imagination was paired with

Fear and Loathing in the DC Smithsonian

“What is this generation’s Pac-Man?” It’s a question posed to my associate and I during a late night smoking cigarettes outside of the Washington Hilton, asked by a short, sunglasses-clad African-American in his late twenties. I previously told him I was

The Artist: A Conversation with Cart Life's Richard Hofmeier

“There are three classic semantic problems. The worst one is art.” On paper, this sounds like the beginnings of a dry lecture from Linguistics 101, but Richard Hofmeier delivers it with such earnest enthusiasm that I can’t help but lean