The two games are absolutely comparable, almost uncannily so. A lot of the lore translates really easily between the two (the persecution of mages and general mistrust of magic, once great but now fallen elves, humans have a powerful monotheistic religion, Novigrad is a nationless "free city" similar to Kirkwall,…

My favourite one so far is from one of the last Digests, which John introduced with "Teti to Gameologinauts, Teti to Gameologinauts"

I was only really able to do sidequests from the first third or so of the game because they ate up so much time, but my favourite of those was the recurring fights with Ser Whatever He Was Called, some local chump who was fighting for the honour of some maiden who clearly didn't give two shits about his heroic quest…

Hello chums, quick update from me: I'm playing more of The Witcher 3. In order to get that review in on time (read: two weeks after release) I had to really keep my head down and do as little exploring and side questing as possible. This time around I'm going to do it properly, letting it melt on my tongue like a…

The original Mass Effect is such a tragedy. Not, like, because it's tragically bad or anything, but because I know so many people who would love the series but who would never be able to play or even understand the first one because they didn't get PhD's in Inventory Management from Incomprehensible Western RPG…

I love when games have a wide selection of food that serve as healing items. It makes the most sense in Symphony of the Night (I feel like I've been mentioning that game a lot lately), since you're supposed to be in this big luxurious palace, so I totally see Alucard taking a break to snack on some grapes or sake or…

It may yet happen, but it'll probably be a while still. Suikoden II was given a PS3 ESRB rating in March of last year, and didn't appear in the store until December. Suikoden III was given a PEGI rating this past March, so if it gets rolled out at the same pace, it won't be hitting PSN for another 7 months.

Yeah, at one point you're able to select from a small pool of recruits, but it's a little bit of a false choice- if you want all 108, there's one you have to choose, because he comes as a package deal with another character. You're also allowed to spend one of your Listening Crystals to recruit a non-star character,…

Yeeeeeeessssssssss!!

I don't know what it is about Richard, but he gets the biggest laugh out of me every episode without fail.

Back in elementary and high school, I used to spend entire summers playing my favourite JRPGs. These days I can hunker down and power through one of these in like two or three weeks, less if I really put my head down, but somehow when I was a kid they always took me months and months to complete. I used to spend…

If you're playing a Sole Survivor Shepard, you now have no fewer than two tragic backstories.

Behind the scenes fun fact: The very first draft of this piece did indeed mention Season Two in some depth, but attempting to discuss both seasons lead to every observation being terribly cramped. I decided it was the better move to make one point as well as I could rather than try to cram as many ideas as possible…

Almost certainly something from the Metal Gear Solid series. Off the top of my head, I'd probably go with either The End or The Fear, both from Snake Eater. The End is a fan favourite, and rightly so, a sneaky, protracted, low-energy battle of attrition in a series usually renowned for its bombastic boss battles. But…

I only defeated Ruby and Emerald Weapons for the first time a few years ago, and it was a blast. Like you said, it's great that they're not just enemies who hit harder and have more HP, they actually have their own unique wrinkles and quirks that force you to approach them fundamentally differently to most other boss…

You said it. Half of Sonic Unleashed is actually a really solid Sonic game, it's just that the Werehog levels a) take forever, and b) are terrible. It takes 4-5 times as long to finish a Night stage as a Day one, and they're never anything close to fun. When I first picked up Unleashed I figured the Night levels would…

I also love that the game keeps track of how popular each Function is in each slot- there was some pretty surprising information in there. Almost half of the people whose data was recorded used Crash() in an active slot, which stunned me. One of the most important things I discovered about the battle system was that…

MY NAME'S KNUCKLES UNLIKE SONIC I DON'T CHUCKLE I'D RATHER FLEX MY MUSCLES

It was hard choosing just one Sonic track to be emblematic of the entire series, but ultimately I think Lava Reef Zone Act 1 has my favourite music in the series, and is what gets stuck in my head most often. Runners up included Hydrocity Zone Act 2 and Cool Edge Day.

Hello all you beautiful, perfect shining stars, I haven't checked in with you all in a while but I still love you all very much. This past week I was mourning the loss of Silent Hills, and rushed to the PSN store to pick up P.T. before it got pinched. While I was there, in desperate need of a pick-me-up, I also finally…