The Nerd Next Door

  Ah DOOM 3 , the black sheep of the DOOM franchise, stripping away the speedy, fast, heavy metal action and going for a more slower, cramped and claustrophobic experience; DOOM 3 feels like a sore thumb compared to earlier and even later entries like DOOM 2016 and Eternal . From the outside looking in, DOOM 3 is a divisive game; it's an underrated horror masterpiece to some and a slow plodding mess to others. Some recommend the original PC version and some recommend the 2012 BFG re-release and other still would have you ignore it all together. So after beating 64 I decided to go straight into 3 and finish my own personal DOOM story that began in 2016 to see how it held up. DOOM 3 lays down what it wants to be in the first 10 minutes of the game, a horror themed Half-Life . After the introduction cut-scene you, a nameless space marine, are hurled into a Martian base to get acclimated, meet the people, enjoy some world building; ya know, like in Half-Life . But sure enough you h

Ah October, pumpkin spice is in the air, spooks are abundant, and I even rebrand myself as Spookbringer to get into the season. Things have been a little tougher this year to get into the mood, what with the looming threats breathing down our necks come November, but I decided to do so anyway with two games, Luigi's Mansion and DOOM 64 . Now this isn't about Luigi's Mansion , chances are if you're a gamer who owns a Gamecube/can emulate on PC you'll know Luigi's Mansion is a classic so I'm not here to beat you over the head with that knowledge. No, I'm here to tell you about a Halloween classic you may have slept on, one that went largely ignored even in it's own series' fanbase until about, two-three years ago.  Yes, we're talking DOOM 64 for the Panasonic 3DO Nintendo 64, a game that is shockingly not just DOOM but on the N64, it's a wholly original game and a Halloween FPS classic. Now , DOOM 64 is sort of an inappropriate name,

  Halo 3: ODST , one of my favorite games of all time, has finally received a proper PC port so I felt it was time to talk about what made it so special. ODST stood out in the Halo series for changing the formula; new gameplay ideas, new design, throwing what a Halo game was on it's head, and focusing on more personal stories about the world you're in as opposed to the big epic scales one got used to. Over the years however, I've noticed one game that does the same thing in it's own series and stands out for those same reasons as ODST , the Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask . Sure it's a different series and gameplay styles, but you'd be shocked at the common story these games share, right from inception. ODST and Majora's Mask both started out as other projects entirely, for ODST it was Halo: Chronicles , a failed project meant to be directed by Peter Jackson. When Jackson bailed however the team behind Chronicles were left with nothing to do. So,

Yes, Super Mario Bros. , the classic Nintendo platformer, why? Because I feel its a game everyone should play at least once and it had been a few years since I played it front to back, last time was in 2014 on the Wii U when they dropped it on the NES Virtual Console. So I decided to give it another shot by playing the All Stars version released on SNES in 1993 and actually review it this time, bit of a writing exercise here. I'm emulating this on higan, the most accurate SNES emulator out there so far, save states were used sparingly, and I'll cover why I did towards the end. But first, story, which I think we all know the low down; firey turtle King Bowser rescues plumber Mario from the tyrannical Princess Toadsto- no, wait, sorry. Plumbing Brothers Mario and Luigi seek to rescue Princess Toadstool form the tyrannical turtle King Bowser. Of course every time Mario and Luigi beat the four levels that constitute a world and think they succeed in their quest Toadstool&#

The Nintendo Playstation sounds to the common gamer like a statement that a troll on reddit or Twitter would come up with as joke. But many hardcore gamers know the story that Nintendo and Sony initially were going to make both a CD add-on for the Super Nintendo and an all in one console called the Nintendo Playstation. The project died in 1991 and has been regarded as Nintendo's worst failure, giving rise to their own competition. But what if I told you that through emulation and flash carts, the Super Nintendo CD lives in a very odd fashion? It's an odd thing, I'll need to explain further. We need to go back to the original SNES CD concept and how it sprouted from the Super Nintendo development. In 1988, Sony approached Nintendo with a brand new audio chip for the upcoming Super Nintendo project, a chip created by future Playstation creator Ken Kutaragi. Nintendo bought the chip, which allowed for sample based music to be created and boosted the SNES' audio bey