VIRTUAL BASTION

Indie Games are Still Very Underrated

Indie games have been a major part of the gaming industry for a very long time now, perhaps for more than 15 years. Yet, it’s still so easy to forget this part of the market thanks to the constant stream of AAA games and the endless trailers and ads that come with them. It’s really…

YouTube Highlights, Weekly Edition #217

Up this week: ‘n Verlore Verstand (demo) – here we take another odd trip into an abstract world of dreams and nightmares. Metamorphosis (demo) – trying this very strange but very intriguing puzzle platformer had us “bugging out”! Song of the Deep – Merryn’s father is missing, and we have to help her find him…

Do you play to play or play to beat?

When I say “I am a video game player,” what does that mean? Does it mean I play one game at a time, completing as much of it as possible before moving onto the next game? Does it mean I prefer to play multiple games at once and couldn’t care less about seeing how any…

Shin Megami Tensei Re-Introduces Seth

Atlus has been pumping-out trailers at a furious rate for the upcoming Shin Megami Tensei V. The most recent one features a monster (persona?) that many Persona 5 fans will likely enjoy: the dark dragon Seth. See it for yourself in the trailer below!

Shady Part of Me: A Girl and Her Shadow Unite

Shady Part of Me is a unique puzzle-platformer where a girl and her shadow work together to solve puzzles and progress through a watercolor landscape. The two main characters are opposites. The girl is afraid of light and must hide in the shadows, while her shadow must remain in the light and uses shadows as…

Psychonauts 2 Was Worth the Wait!

There was a time when I was content with Psychonauts as a standalone game. I’d been a fan of it since it first released for PlayStation 2 in 2005 and had spent a few years hoping for some sort of follow-up, but nothing materialized for almost 10 years. By that point, I figured Psychonauts was…

YouTube Highlights, Weekly Edition #216

Up this week: Song of the Deep – Merryn’s father is missing, and we have to help her find him in this metroid-vania adventure. The Shady Part of Me – in this puzzler, we take a surreal and emotional journey with a young girl and her shadow, and there are plenty of twists and turns…

Fallout 76: Year Two in Review

When this past August rolled around, I considered writing and update to my ESO/Fallout 76 from the same time last year. Only then, I remembered that I barely touched ESO over the past twelve months. I found far more comfort in Fallout 76, which sounds strange, because the game is far from comfortable. Looking back,…

The Latest Metroid Dread Teaser is…Wow!

Okay, so I don’t usually do this, but spoiler warning for those wanting to go into Metroid Dread completely blind. I, of course, don’t know anything more than what’s already been shown by Nintendo, but Nintendo just revealed a lot in the last trailer, so turn back now if you want the full impact of…

Subnautica: A “Broken” Masterpiece

Always on the lookout for good sales on digital games, easily the best deal I ever got was when I downloaded Subnautica for free, thanks to PlayStation’s whole “Play at Home” program. Having already seen Youtuber 8-BitRyan play the game online, I never really intended on playing Subnautica for myself, as awesome as it looked. …

There Should Be a Legal Path to ROMs

Nintendo been in the news again lately, this time for getting another ROM site to take down all their ROMs under threat of legal penalties. I’ve been kind of split on this issue for a long time. One one hand, all game companies are well within their rights to defend their IP, but I’m not…

YouTube Highlights, Weekly Edition #215

Up this week: The Shady Part of Me – in this puzzler, we take a surreal and emotional journey with a young girl and her shadow, and there are plenty of twists and turns along the way. Subnautica – what lies in what in this underwater adventure game? Let’s find out! Not Zangief – our occasional…

Resonance: Mid Boss Mayhem

Even though my time with Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle has been scattershot since I first started playing it, my sessions with the game have been wonderful. Giving credit where credit is due, that’s thanks in large part to its incredible soundtrack. I can’t say that in all my years with Mario and Mario-ish games…

Goofing Off in Subnautica is Far Too Addicting

Subnautica is one of many games that I have heard good things about, but seeing as I had already watched a playthrough online, I saw no reason to play it for myself. That all changed when I was perusing the PlayStation Store, only to notice that Subnautica was available for…free? Was I seeing this right? …

Nintendo World is Incredible!

When I first heard the rumors about a brand new, Nintendo-themed area getting built in Universal Studios Japan, I took the news with a mix of excitement and pessimism. On the one hand, it was just plain cool that Nintendo was now mainstream enough to be featured in the most major theme park aside from…

Castlevania is Back…on Smartphones

Konami has decided to take a break from making pachinko and slot machines to bring Castlevania fans a new entry in the series: Castlevania -Grimoire of Souls-. It’ll only be available on iOS devices via Apple Arcade at first, though hopefully Android-based fans will have a chance to try it out eventually too. As for…

Kingdom Hearts: Melody of Memories: Demo Review

Any long-time fan of Kingdom Hearts will know that the series has gotten rather difficult to follow over the years. And I’m not just talking about the overly complicated plot. The main, numbered games in the series started on the PS2, and it makes sense that the eventual sequel would find its way onto the…

Looking Forward to Ruining More Friendships in Mario Party Superstars

It’s already been a couple months since E3, and I’m still feeling psyched about the Nintendo’s 2021 line up. Metroid Dread is at the top of my list, but I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t darn excited for Mario Party Superstars too! I’ve been a huge fan of Mario Party since the very…

Halo Infinite Multiplayer Looks…Good!

Okay, so this is actually a little late, but I figured now would be a good time to talk about it since people have been having fun with the beta recently. Unfortunately, I’m still lacking any of the new consoles, so I can only look on in envy. Still, I must say that Halo is…

Re-Opening the Gates of Oblivion

The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion is one of the most beloved of Bethesda games, so much so that many fans still celebrate it to this very day. I can’t count how many YouTube videos I’ve seen which sing the game’s praises; some even go so far as to say it’s superior to Skyrim! As someone who played…

Dead Space Remake Team Outlines Vision, Sounds Good So Far

Last week, EA shocked just about everyone with a surprise trailer for Dead Space Remake, which is exactly what it sounds like. After ignoring the series for almost 8 years, EA has finally decided to acknowledge Dead Space’s enduring popularity, and I guess it’s plan is to test the waters with this remake first. It’s…

Valve Steam Deck is Already Back-Ordered into 2022

Late last Friday, Valve’s recently-announced Steam Deck system went up for pre-order. As is the case for virtually every piece of new hardware these days, problems quickly arose as fans hurried to place their orders. There was the usual trouble with traffic coming to Valve’s website, and scalpers made their presence known too. Even so,…

Nintendo’s New Switch Looks Cool, But…

So, Nintendo launched a new version of the Switch last week: the Nintendo Switch (OLED Model). It looks nice, and it has some nice changes. However, this isn’t an upgrade in the same vein as upgrades for previous Nintendo consoles. In fact, it’s so in substantial that I can’t help but wonder who exactly this…

Monster Hunter Stories 2 Has an Impressive Post-Launch Roadmap

Capcom, the publisher for Monster Hunter Stories 2: Wings of Ruin, recently revealed their extensive post-launch plans for the game. They’d already announced that players will get Palamute (from Monster Hunter Rise) as a ridable monster, but this latest announcement confirmed that much more will be coming to the game in the months following its…

Just Wait For The Sale

Summer is here and so is the annual Steam Summer Sale. Just like so many other gamers out there, I’ve already got plenty of games to play, but I couldn’t resist picking up some the items on my wish list. I mean, some were selling for $3 to $5! What better time to get them…

NEO: The World Ends With You Has a Demo Now

The newly remastered The World Ends With You is already available on PC, Switch and PlayStation 5, but there’s also now a demo for those who are on the fence about this notoriously unique JRPG. Actually, if there’s any game out there that’s better experienced via a demo first, it’s this one.

Earthlock: Demo Review

As I peruse the demos currently available on the PlayStation Store, I am bombarded with a staggering number of similar looking RPGs. Typically a genre that consumes a whole lot of one’s time, RPGs are kind of a big commitment, and so it makes sense to check out the demo first in order to decide…

Metroid Dread: A Game 19 Years in the Making

As usual, Nintendo had a very strong showing at E3 2021. In fact, I’d argue that theirs was the best out of everyone who presented. Not only did they bring the games, they brought games that we’ll actually get to play relatively soon; no waiting for years and years to get our hands on these!…

Revisiting E3: Halo Infinite Multiplayer is Free-To-Play

As is tradition with E3 week, a lot of news came out over the course the event and there’s very little new to talk about. So for this week, let’s focus on one last week’s more interesting announcements: Halo Infinite’s now free-to-play multiplayer.

The Mooseman: Beautiful, Eerie, Yet Unsatisfying

Ever since I have begun buying digital games, I have found no shortage of interesting, artsy looking options. Beautiful they may be, but more often than not, these games prove why you shouldn’t judge something based on looks alone. The most recent example of this is The Mooseman, an extremely intriguing looking game that is…

Making Online Friends: Easy or Not?

After taking time to talk about Destiny last week, I found myself wondering why it was that I enjoyed the game so much in the first place. This wasn’t all that difficult a question to answer, because I’ve answered it before. While Destiny had (and sometimes has) a lot going for it as a game,…

Ubisoft Officially Revealed Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora…Yay?

Ubisoft’s showing at E3 2021 was more or less in line with their showings for the past several years. Despite being a major publisher, they’ve consistently had almost nothing exciting to talk about at the event. Heck, they almost never have anything exciting going on at all anymore. This year’s showcase had one bright spot…

Spelunky: Demo Review

Spelunky falls into a broad category of games that I have heard good things about, but have never actually played. Thanks to the trial version that I downloaded on the PS4, I finally had a chance to experience this game for myself. Though my initial impression was fairly neutral, I quickly grew to appreciate Spelunky…

Hating Destiny 2, Learning to Love it, Then Hating it All Over Again

Considering how many times I’ve brought up Destiny over the past 7 years, it may just be that I’m somewhat obsessed with it. Despite dropping the game for months at a time and still lamenting the passing of Destiny 1, I still cannot just quit Destiny as a whole. I have too many good memories…

So It Looks Like the Borderlands Movie is Really Happening

When it comes to video game movies, there are basically two kinds: those that are rumored for years and never get made and those that dive into theaters out of nowhere. I’d like to say that there are good and bad video game movies too, but I’ve yet to see one I could honestly call…