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Reading List April 2023
The April Reading List is here! Enjoy some good games discourse about how our familiarity with the medium affects our experience of it, have some cathartic commiseration over Waypoint’s untimely demise, and much, much more. For those wondering, the next video (a Games Under Five Hours video) is still about a week out, but on its way!Second OpinionsAgainst the Storm Review — We Recommend by GameLuster: Nirav, an actual urban designer by trade, also checked out Against the Storm and came away with a positive opinion!Way Less PointIf you haven...
A Very Belated March Reading List
Heya folks, apologies this one took so dang long to get out. We'll be dialing back the streaming schedule to hopefully give me more time to focus on everything else I'm supposed to be doing.But it's here! March was GDC month, which always produces some fun anecdotes, Armored Core hype got Writing on Games to give a breakdown of the entire series you should check out, Daryl Talks Games has made probably one of the best youtube videos I've ever seen about Outer Wilds and much, much more!Second OpinionsTales from the Backlog 68: Si...
Against the Storm Review Available Day Early For Patrons!
It's been a hot minute since I could post a video, but here we are at last! Against the Storm started as a quarterly wrapup contender, but was 1. way too long to feature there, and 2. way too awesome to just write a paragraph about. So it got promoted to full review status!I haven't been shy about my love of crunchier technical game genres like city builders, but whenever I find an accessible one to show off on the channel, they tend to lose a little bit of that crunch. Not so with Against the Storm, a moody mashup of city builders and ...
Reading List February 2023
The reading list is back! This time, we have a game development documentary almost too big to be believed — I'm talking the Lord of the Rings behind-the-scenes scale of massive — as well as interviews on Hi-Fi Rush, psychological analyses of Bioware characters, and more.Second OpinionsWhy the Successful Surprise Launch of Hi-Fi Rush Matters So Much by Trone Dowd: Dowd talks about the implications of Hi-Fi Rush’s success, using it as yet another datapoint supporting the argument that there’s a rabid audience (me) out there for smalle...
Hi-Fi Rush Review is Live!
Man, I did not realize how down bad I was after slogging through Cult of the Lamb.After playing that game, I was starting to become convinced that I simply didn't like action games and the genre had, somehow, mystically become "not for me." 2022 was a rough year for action games not named Elden Ring or God of War. Thankfully, here's Hi-Fi Rush to remind me that good action games do exist, which means that this review is, perhaps, a little tied up in my own personal hangups. But hey, we're like a month out from this game'...
Reading List (January 2023)
The first reading list of the year is live! This feels like a particularly good crop this time around. We have a few other, deeper looks at Signalis, a phenomenal series of articles by Polygon that squarely hits our interests, and an ongoing discussion about what's worthy of coverage and why. All that and much more in today's reading list!Second OpinionsHow the Silent Hill-Inspired ‘SIGNALIS’ Tried to Forge Its Own Identity by Patrick Klepek: Klepek interviewed the Signalis devs about the game’s influences, ambiguity, and multiple...
Signalis Review Now Live!
A new review is live! Elster goes to hell, and so do I.At long last, we're finally wrapping up talking about 2022, and this ended up being a nightmare project. Not because it was especially complex or because I didn't enjoy my time with Signalis, but just because almost anything that could have gone wrong did. I wrote 75% of a script, then had to go back and rewrite the entire thing when the game pulled a 180 literally minutes after the point I paused to start writing. And then I went and moved my office space into a little box of a roo...
Channel Update January 2023!
A bit less exciting but still important video today, folks. For longterm patrons, there are a few exciting announcements: a major project I've embarked on as the next sort of "phase" of the channel, the imminent advent of streaming after years of saying I wanted to do some, and a less exciting announcement that I'm adding a credits roll to the list of perks all of you get for pitching in five dollars. But otherwise just a regular offering of my cap to see if folks will put money into it. Seeing as everyone here is already doing ...
Reading List (December 2022)
Yes, you read that headline correctly. We’re pretty well into January at this point, but I still owe you folks a reading list! Enjoy some of the best games crit from December, including the last vestiges of the game of the year debate, a few videos highlighting Fortnite’s ever-changing nature, and much more!Second OpinionsI Strongly Recommend: Cult of the Lamb by Skillup: Watching Skillup’s video on Cult of the Lamb is a fascinating comparison point (it’s also just extremely well edited). Skillup more or less noted many of the same thin...
Cult of the Lamb Review Now Live!
Happy new year folks! The year in review is continuing with Cult of the Lamb — one of the biggest indies of August that caught a tiny bit of flack for being too short.I'm always going to show up for a game that gets the dollar-to-hour crowd in a tizzy, but I found myself with desperately little to say about Cult of the Lamb. It's a game polished to literal perfection — that you could've played at any point in the past decade. A game that undoubtedly will offer a great deal of fun, and yet beyond a way to enjoyably kill time, I c...
Vampire Survivors Review Now Live!
We're winding down the year, and that means that it's time to do my usual Year in Review series. There are always a few games that just don't fit in the schedule, and this is my opportunity to go back and catch them!First up is Vampire Survivors, a game that's been a phenomenon since all the way back in January. I really enjoyed this one, but it was mainly the progression systems that kept me interested. The moment to moment gameplay has already been supplanted by imitators innovating on its design, but the game's progressio...
Reading List (November 2022)
The reading list comes at last, and this month, the cup runneth over! This is probably the biggest list I’ve ever put together, with banger retrospectives of both the absolute best and the worst gaming has to offer, wonderful critical breakdowns of industry cornerstones World of Warcraft and Call of Duty, and much, more more!Second OpinionsMy take on Marvel Snap is by far the minority. If you’re interested in the game and not dissuaded by my coverage, I’d encourage you look at this pair of articles by Nicole Carpenter and Ash Parrish that...
New Games Under Five Hours Available Early for Patrons!
Games Under Five Hours is back! It's been a hot minute since I've been able to find the space to fit one of these into the schedule, but I always love doing them.Up this time, we've got hectic shooters, chaotic racers, and Space Warlord Organ Trading Simulator, which at once perfectly describes what you do while utterly failing to describe the game's sheer insanity. It's a great crop for folks that like to go fast or tackle a challenge, but for everyone else, there's also survival horror/Thief mashup Gloomwood and a more...
Marvel Snap Review Now Live!
Surprise! Another review is now live! After hearing universally good things about it, I got curious about this neat new card game called Marvel Snap. Maybe you've heard of it.You probably weren't expecting another video so soon, but this is probably the angriest I've ever been in a review, which translated to motivated. It's surreal considering it's over such a seemingly universally beloved game, but this is some of the most forceful and hostile game design I've experienced in years that at every turn is designed to wast...
Reading List (October 2022)
With October here and gone, that means it's time for a reading list! With the Nier video out of the way, we'll be returning to much more regular and shorter videos, but in the meantime, we've got a shotgun blast of articles all coming at the concept of time-approachable games from different angles, some hot takes on Scorn, the current game under the collective critical spotlight, and more!Second OpinionsThe Design of Neon White — Broken Down by its Developer by Noclip: Noclip caught up with the head dev behind the phenomenal Neon ...
Nier: Automata GTDM Live Early for $5 Patrons!
It's been a hot minute since I've gotten to post in here, but rest assured, I've been working away folks! And now, your's for the weekend before anyone else, I've finally finished the Nier: Automata video I said I'd do......Last June. Welp. Sorry that took so long!As for the video itself, I talk a lot about Nier: Automata, but also about my style as a critic, how the game has always clashed with that style, and about the inevitable blind spots inherent to any critical lens (but namely mine). It's pretty different fro...
Reading List (September 2022)
September’s reading list is here, folks! It’s still going to be another two-ish weeks before the next video on Nier releases, but in the meantime, enjoy a whole bunch of chatter on the excellent Neon White, as well as some nuanced discussion about games using art styles as marketing tools, industry self-reflection, and much more!Second OpinionsThe Game That Teaches You How to Speedrun by HeavyEyed: HeavyEyed gave an in-progress review of Neon White, the many ways it teaches someone how to speedrun, and how he’s caught the competitive bug ...
Neon White Review is Live!
It's review time again, folks! This time, I've put out Yet Another Video About How Neon White Teaches You to Speedrun, a topic that's already been done a dozen times, but fits so cleanly into my wheelhouse that I just couldn't ignore the game.Speedrunning is normally not a hobby I would describe as "casual" or "accessible," dependent on weird tricks and glitches you'd never even knew existed if you just played a game normally and often are only discovered because someone went digging through its code. High ex...
Reading List (August 2022)
Reading list time has come again, folks! This time, we were blindsided by the sudden arrival of none other than Sakurai himself to the youtube scene and I've once again found a fair few cool articles highlighting anecdotes about how the music in your favorite games is made. Enjoy all that and more in this month's reading list!Second OpinionsFire Emblem Fans Should Give This Steam Hit a Try by Ethan Gach: How I initially discovered the game, Gach over at Kotaku also covered Symphony of War with a quick review of his own!No More Robots’...
Symphony of War Review is Live!
Another review is live! Symphony of War has been making some waves for the past few months, offering a more mechanically-focused take on the Fire Emblem formula that hearkens back to the franchise's GBA years. But not content to stop there, Symphony of War also took a note from Ogre Battle and features full squads of up to nine units, each of which gets its own class and individually tracked stats. At first glance, this isn't First Five material, but compared to where Fire Emblem's been going the past few installments, this 40-hour ...
Fall Guys Review/Essay Available Day Early For Patrons!
Have y'all played Fall Guys lately? I loved this game at launch, but because life is how it is and I'm always moving on to new games, I haven't touched it in almost two years! But I randomly got an itch to play again (that has nothing to do with the fact it coincidentally just went free to play, I promise), and I came back to a completely changed game, one that has spent two years iterating on itself to create a game head and shoulders over where it started. Fall Guys is now one of the best pick up and play games out there, and if y...
Reading List (July 2022)
Another month, another reading list folks!This month, a few different websites all ended up tackling singular topics from multiple angles, giving me a very easy time picking out the theme categories. Enjoy some of the weirdest angles I've seen people cover DOOM from and some commentary on Blizzard's latest, Diablo Immortal, alongside numerous other interesting takes on all facets of games from around the internet!Second OpinionsThis month’s Second Opinions section is largely a mini history lesson on The Order: 1886, highlighting sever...
TombStar Review Now Live!
Another review is live folks! This time, we're leaping to the other side of the spectrum and looking at a real tiny indie game: TombStar.TombStar's basically "the Enter the Gungeon we have at home." And I have a lot of mixed feelings about it. On the one hand, the moment to moment gameplay is legitimately great. On the other hand, this is one of the most underwhelming roguelikes I've played in a long time. Which makes for a very messy and complicated time trying to figure out if I actually like this game or not, but I think ...
The Order: 1886 Review is Live!
It's time for another review folks! This time, I'm stepping a little out of my wheelhouse to review a much older game than I usually do.When it first came out, The Order: 1886 got almost universally panned, and one of the most widespread criticisms of the game was that it was too short — specifically compared to its AAA price tag. But we're all about short games here, so I decided to give this game another chance to see if there was actually a gem underneath all that drama surrounding its length.Unfortunately, it's still a pre...
Reading List June 2022
This month’s reading list is live, and it's a print-heavy one this time around. This time, we’ve got a whole bunch Unwinnable’s been unusually charitable with its free articles, all of which have been excellent. There are also unfortunately about a half dozen elephants in the room to acknowledge. We’ve been through a bit of an awful month as far as world news goes, and that means a lot of investigative journalism about what it’s all going to mean for the video game industry.Second OpinionsConversation in the Ruins of Interplanetar...
A Very Strategic Quarterly Wrapup Now Available For Patrons!
I know I said I probably wouldn't have time to do a whole quarterly wrapup for my next video, but oops, I did it anyway. And this time, I snuck a bonus sixth game in!The theme this time around is strategy games, a genre that tends to like to take its time playing out. But I happened to find a whole bunch of games that'll make you think and strategize — and get you doing it right away! I also slipped in Norco, the narrative-heavy pixel adventure everyone's been raving about lately, and Museum of Mechanics: Lockpicking, a fascinatin...
Citizen Sleeper Review is Now Live!
A new review is live, folks! Sort of.At first, I approached Citizen Sleeper like a normal review, but I found that I really wanted to focus on one topic in particular: this game's characters. Namely, how they always come through in a clutch moment for you. Citizen Sleeper makes you depend on its NPCs in a way few games ask you to, with your fate regularly entirely in their hands. And in receiving their constant help (and occasionally helping them in kind), Citizen Sleeper captured a feeling of community no other single player game I've ...
Reading List April/May 2022
We're back on schedule with these folks (which is to say, I desperately scramble on the last day of the month to somehow fit this in between videos). Enjoy a fresh reading list, complete with the last of the Elden Ring takes (probably) and the first of the AAA developer unions!Second OpinionsSteam Breakout V Rising Is A Stellar Survival RPG by Sisi Jiang: Jiang focused on V Rising’s earliest few hours when you’re still trying to cobble together some sense of basic subsistence and how it stands in stark contrast with the usual presentati...
V Rising Review is Now Live!
A new review is live! V Rising appears to have surprised the world with its early access launch popularity, but as a fan of the developers, I've been looking forward to this one for a while. Stunlock's a studio that's been making phenomenal games for a solid decade now, but they've just never managed to find the popularity to keep those games running.And V Rising is the most Stunlock game I could possibly imagine, a game that attempts to combat those popularity woes by jumping onto the survival crafter bandwagon while still comi...
20 More Ukraine Bundle Recommendations — Yours a Day Early!
Thank you for everyone's patience. My next video is now available a day early for all patrons, and it's a biggun! 20 — yes, 20 — piping hot indie recommendations from the Ukraine bundle back in March. Which means you probably already own them, but even if you don't, these are all super tiny indies that you can get for dirt cheap even outside of a criminally cheap megabundle!We've got big and small indies alike, everything from Wandersong, which needs no introduction, to tiny itch.io artpieces like Sunlight and Depanneur Noct...
