The Nerd Next Door

 Isn't this an odd one, Nights Into Dreams . I had heard people praise this as Sonic Team's best non-Sonic work and one day it was around $2 on Steam so I figured why not. Of course if it's on this backlog dig it means I never played it. Is Nights as good as people claim and worth begging for a sequel to as so many have?  Nights' story follows Elliot and Claris, two children going through tough patches in their lives, as they're pulled into the Dream World of Nighttopia. There they discover that an evil wizard is trying to destroy Nightopia with nightmares and team up with Nights, a jester of unspecified gender but I like to think is a woman, to stop said wizard and save Nighttopia. The story of Nights is told non-verbally and barebones which I personally am torn on was a mistake or not. There's clearly more going on here with Nights and the bosses she fights, namely this identical jester who serves as the second to last boss, and it looks like an interesting w...

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...