Fallout 4 largely changed how perks worked in the Fallout series. By dumping the traditional skills such as Energy Weapons and Speechcraft and tying perk levels directly to SPECIAL stats, they dramatically changed certain balances the Fallout series had been keeping with the perks for a while. But beyond this overhaul, Bethesda reworked how many, if…
Halloween is big business. Cards, film, books, decorations, and, of course, candy all adapt every year as soon as October’s dreary chill comes around. More than most other holidays, Halloween inspires people to get into a very specific mood, one that thrives on cheap thrills and light to heavy scares. Movie producers start pumping out…
As I’m certain readers have noticed, I’ve missed a few updates. Unfortunately, as I announced months ago, my schedule is now heavily restricted. I still produce a weekly column at gamemoir.com, for those looking for my writing. I do not want to cancel another post, so I’ve decided to pimp out someone’s Youtube channel.…
I love Japanese video games. Personally, I think they are absolutely mandatory to the industry to avoid stagnation. They allow for a completely different culture to throw out their own tropes so we don’t end up with nothing but Uncharteds, Halos, and Assassin’s Creeds. It used to be that almost every game worth playing came…
Metal Gear Solid V was released to widespread acclaim from reviewers, averaging 93 percent on the PS4 Metacritic (96 on PC and Xbox One). Fans were suitably amped for the release. What they found, however, was a game that was a little different than they were used to. Metal Gear Solid, a game that has…
With every passing day, I can’t help but get increasingly worried about Mega Man. You remember Mega Man, right? He was one of Capcom’s most bankable and prolific mascots, putting out too many unique and sprawling franchises to count. And, unlike other wayward mascots such as Sonic or Bubsy, Mega Man continued to push out…
It used to be that gaming was simple: move to the left and complete the level without dying. That’s not to say there weren’t times where gamers wished the developers had left more clues about how to play their games, but they weren’t full of extremely complex systems that absolutely required explanation. As games became more…
I don’t like going back to older, often criticized games in order to kick them, but Bungie’s Destiny was swarming in controversy last week, and I’ve been holding my tongue on Destiny for months. Last week’s controversy began over packaging exclusive content into a collector’s edition for the release of their newest expansion The Taken…
This year’s E3 was full of unexpected, monumental bombshells. Also, Nintendo announced a few things. Joking aside, of the big 3 console publishers, there’s no doubt that Sony and Microsoft brought their big guns. Both companies are thriving in the market place, but both need to keep consumer faith high because, at this juncture, either…
Bethesda recently announced Fallout 4, the newest instalment in the Fallout series. The announcement has been getting some criticism from fans, but has mostly been met with rejoicing. One of the criticisms I saw on IGN was that Fallout 4 isn’t taking any risks… at all. When I first watched the trailer to Fallout 4,…
Like most sane RPG enthusiasts, I’ve been delving into the world of the Witcher 3 over the past week. Though I’d never played either of the other two Witcher games, that’s rarely a concern with video games. What I’m finding is a game with such a wonderful sense of detail that it asks me to…
Since the very beginning of the video game industry, game developers and movie producers have tried to intermingle their business to eek out the most profit out of their mutual customers. The quality of these collaborations have always been suspect. Back near the beginning of the entire industry, Atari’s E.T. is one of the reasons…
It’s always heartbreaking to watch legacy companies die. It’s even worse to watch them wallow in disgrace before cutting their own throats. It appears the second scenario is now occurring with the video game developer and publisher Konami. It began quite awhile ago, though nobody noticed. Konami stopped making many games. It shifted its focus away from…
It’s amazing how much can change in a span of a week. At one end, Valve announced a brand new way for mod makers to monetize their art; at the other, Valve had shut down the process due to massive consumer backlash. Since then, there has been quite a debate among fans as to whether…
It took a little over year, but Sony finally has an exclusive game that has received universal acclaim. From Software’s Bloodborne has been getting jealous looks from every recently released game. As we enter into year 2 of the PS4, games like The Order 1886, which are largely tech demos, don’t cut it anymore. Whereas…
Mistranslations for the Modern Gamer 