Devil Survivor 2 and the Personafication of MegaTen

For the last few years, the Persona subseries has stood tall as the representative of the Shin Megami Tensei series. Both Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3 and Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 4 were successes, so why not milk that cow

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

Building Worlds: Element Zero of the Mass Effect series

[Building Worlds is a series where Dan Cox examines one facet in a videogame and shows you how, from that one angle, an entire society is reflected.] It’s the title. That’s how important a reaction is to the fiction of

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

The Dear Esther Interlard

You are on a macadam jetty — ostensibly shipwrecked — looking out over a briny shoreline that snakes its way out into the distance before disappearing behind a limestone cliff face. Even further stands a radio tower on which a

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

Play Mass Effect 3 with Nightmare Mode!

Get ready, soldier!  Operation Raptor is gearing up this weekend for Mass Effect 3 on the PC and Xbox 360 (more info on the PS3 below) for the weekend of March 30-April 1.  “The Reaper horde is growing, so we

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