Top 5: The Grind to Unwind

When it comes to most games that don’t involve action sports, “grind” is typically a bad word. It means that players will have to spend hours upon hours slogging away at routine tasks and combat to obtain necessary (and sometimes unnecessary) levels and gear to progress. It can also be applied to the act of…

Survival of the Somewhat Competent

When Valheim was first released in early access on PC early 2021, it took over my news feed for several weeks. A number of bloggers I followed jumped on Valheim and seem to take to it very quickly and very positively. Like any new live-service game, it apparently came with its share of issues, but…

The Prosaic Life in Games

The routine task. The boring chore. The mundane errand. Each day we’re faced with tackling these things, sometimes on their own and sometimes in groups. They are never something that would be categorized as “fun,” but they need to be done regardless. Grocery shopping. Picking up prescriptions. Standing in line to pay bills. True that…

Persona 5 Royal: Let’s Do This!

When I played my first Persona game, Persona 3 Portable, it was an eye-opening experience. Part turn-based, world-saving combat, part life simulator, it was unlike anything I’d ever played before. At the time I completed it, this “newcomer” to the series, Persona 5 Royal was about a year from release. It’s original version from 2016,…

Oops…I Skyrim’d again

I really don’t know it is with me and The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. I know that for some players out there, Skyrim has become a lifestyle, a mode of being, a gaming paramour, of sorts. For me, however, Skyrim has become analogous to…well, I want to say “climbing Mount Everest.” That’s overdramatic, but that’s…