The Nerd Next Door

Recently, I re-played The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword  on Switch, a game I hadn't played since it came out on Wii a decade ago (god I feel old). Overall, I enjoyed the frame rate boost and quality of life changes that the port makes over the Wii original. I also think playing through Breath of the Wild has given me an appreciation for the dungeon crawling of Skyward Sword . Motion controls were still a pain , but I did love that camera control the motion controls have now. But as I was playing, I remembered a criticism about Skyward Sword that I had as a kid, a lot happens emotionally but Link doesn't speak, at all. It's normal for Zelda games but feels weird in Skyward Sword because it puts a lot more effort into making the player care about what's happening. So, it seems weird that Link doesn't say anything when it feels like he should or when someone directly addresses him and it's only implied that he speaks back. I came to the realization however that,...

    Calling Metroid: Other M's story "bad" would be like calling being set on fire by fascists "slightly uncomfortable". Most people agree that the actual gameplay of Other M , while restrictive, is fine for an action game. But the actual story is seen as utterly rancid and bordering on character assassination for series protagonist Samus Aran. Metroid Other M is almost impressive in that it drew the hatred of both people who saw Samus as a feminist icon and those who despise anything "SJW." And having recently replayed Other M in the build up to Metroid Dread, I can firmly say that both groups are correct to hate this game's story and yet I can see how to fix it with one small change. For Those Just Joining Us Before I do tell you how I'd fix Other M , let's go over the plot and it's problems. Not long after failing to save the last Metroid and blowing up Planet Zebes during Super Metroid ; Samus Aran finds herself drawn to the Bot...

Turns out one article wasn't enough to satisfy my Half-Life kick, because when I was choosing to play Half-Life 1 I had two options, Half-Life 1 or the remake Black Mesa. And while I chose Half-Life 1 I was fascinated by Black Mesa, a fan remake of Half-Life 1 that Valve allowed to sell for a profit on Steam.  And it got me thinking about fan games and how they're important to most gaming companies... except one. I'm a Nintendo fan and Nintendo's logic on fan-games is that if you do any fan game and it gains traction you will be automatically shut down. They have the right to do so mind you, but I feel it's a net negative on fandoms in general. Fan works are important and I feel that if developers support fan works in a healthy way it can create a sense of camaraderie and love for a company that would allow it to, in the eyes of the public, elude a lot of criticism. The biggest example of supporting fans is Valve. Ever since the release of Half-Life, Valve has suppo...

So now we are at the end of the line, all the mainline Halo games have played and now the wait begins for Infinite and the MCC port on PC. A wait that honestly is taking longer than expected, but I can wait, I'm a patient lil sausage. But there is a path here, one I've seen over my journey through Halo , one that in my opinion can perfectly explain what the hell happened here and we can find out jsut what the hell happened to cause the rise and fall of Halo. In my opinion and in terms of single player, what made Halo stand out from games like DOOM, Quake, and Duke Nukem was it's ability to flawlessly switch from hallway style linear shooting to big outdoor arenas with lots of vehicles and weapons, all of which encouraged experimentation and approaching things how you want to. It also had a sense of humor about itself, the stakes were big, epic, and serious, but the tone of at least the human characters indicated that they were having a bit of fun with the wh...