Yup, there are a handful of things we're missing out on - Bloodborne chief among them - but the PC/WiiU/3DS combo is a magical one. And for anything not available through that (that I have owned already), I've got a handful of snazzy emulators on PC to present that stuff in HD quality. It's as great a gaming setup as…

Oof, even as someone who likes it when games run at 60 fps (enough to have paid too much for a fancy-pants GTX 970 when it was on sale recently), I just can't fathom that kind of kneejerk nonsense. I mean, it's nice when a game runs super-smooth, and it's crummy when you get Goldeneye-esque framerate drops, but…

Yeah, I operate my PC from the couch using a wireless keyboard/trackpad combo ($20 on Amazon!) and an Xbox One controller. It's functionally a console but with a bunch of extra stuff. For everything else, I've got my Wii U and 3DS.

This is certainly the model laid down by the 3DS and New 3DS. The 'New' model has fancier 3D, can play a few games better than the standard model (Hyrule Warriors Legends) and has a handful of exclusive games/features (Xenoblade), but a person who owned the standard model wouldn't feel left out with the release of new…

Huh, that's too bad.

It's not just you. Even if it was just his overly intense emphasis on her purity or whatever, it would come across as pretty troubling. I don't really get a pervy impression or anything, but it carries some really, really weird cultural implications (at least from a Western perspective). I don't know if it carries the…

That's a great comparison (3/World — Revolver/Rubber Soul), and not one I'd thought of before. They really are two of the best games ever made, though I tend to come down just a bit on the side of World. 3 is a little quirkier, though, and features some really delightful power-ups (the best in the series?), so my mind…

Have you played Super Mario 3D World on Wii U? If that's the one you're talking about, it makes my question look pretty dumb, but if not, I highly recommend playing it! It's (in my opinion, obv) the peak of 3D Mario games so far, and indeed one of the best in the series more generally. Top notch, tight level design…

The Barry stuff is pretty interesting, specifically for how the game never draws attention to the plainly negative aspects of it. I think your comment is pretty insightful, as I've wondered several times whether the inconsistent tone and treatment of idol culture is the result of a surface-level treatment by the…

Strangely, I think this exists outside of the specifically Idol culture. Certain real musicians tend to attract a certain kind of perceived connection from fans who believe that the artist's actions somehow refer specifically to them. There is a difference from the virtual idol thing, since the fans are putting their…

One detail is spoilery enough that you probably shouldn't read this if you want to go through the story cold. On the other hand, having not gotten to the plot point in question (I'm in Chapter 4), I sort of assumed what would happen and ended up being correct. It certainly wouldn't reduce your appreciation of the game…

Ever Oasis looks spectacular, and can't be released soon enough. Well, that's what I would say if I had an endless income supply. As things are, I'll content myself with what's available and snatch that game up in 2017 when it releases. Otherwise, Pokemon is a done deal, I'm on the fence about Pikmin, my Season Pass…

Whoa, thanks. That's a fun read :)

This is a surprisingly critical feature in timing-oriented platform games, as I only learned when designing courses for Super Mario Maker. One of the things that certain levels "get wrong" is the absence of downtime, resulting in player fatigue.

Oh wow, I don't think I've ever read the theory. It sounds fun - are these on a blog or something?

Agreed. I think some people have a hard time separating 'death of the author' interpretation and 'what the story is really about' speculation. They are functionally similar, in that both extrapolation outside of the details explicitly provided by the text, but one leads to imaginative exploration and one leads to…

I wonder how much of this is intentional and how much of it was the result of experimentation with space in early 3D game development.

Oh man, finding the swordsman cowering was one of the many, many beautiful touches that make Majora's Mask so special. The dual approaches to mortality espoused by the swordsman (public stoicism, private terror) are something that so few games communicate effectively, and Majora's Mask pulls it off with a little,…

I will say that one of the most quietly horrifying moments I've encountered in a game, and really the thing that pulled me into the more lifelike horrors of last generation's Xbox 360, was walking through Fallout 3's wilderness and coming across some skeletons strung up by a baseball diamond. That's my memory of it,…

The Dark Souls series is pretty much the zenith for this type of design element.