In Valheim, players take on the roles of Vikings, slain in the course of presumably honor-laden battles, who are on their way to Valhalla. In order to enter, they must first prove themselves worthy by eliminating several of Odin’s enemies. Of course, doing so is no easy task, as players start with nothing and must…
Tag: video games
Yoku’s Island Express: A Pinball-Metroidvania Adventure
Yoku’s Island Express is an interesting combination of pinball and Metroidvania, and it’s one of those weird ideas that works way better than I ever would have expected. You play as a dung beetle named Yoku, who was just recently hired as the new postmaster of Mokumana Island. The game features a very pleasant art…
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…
I and Me: Demo Review
I and Me is an obscure puzzle game for which I could find very little information. You control two cats who move in unison with each other, and the goal is to figure out how to get both of them into these…boxes? Picture frames? Playing demos has exposed me to games of a wide range…
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…
Arietta of Spirits: Demo Review
Arietta of Spirits follows the story of Arietta and her family as they visit the island where her grandmother once lived before her recent passing. The demo covers a short jaunt into the woods to gather apples for dessert, which includes a boss fight against a giant bee. According to the game’s official description, Arietta…
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,…
Pokken Tournament DX: Demo Review
I don’t think I’ve played a Pokemon game since the Nintendo 64 and GameBoy Color era. That finally changed when I tried the demo for Pokken Tournament DX, a Tekken-inspired Pokemon fighting game originally released on the Wii U and later re-released on the Switch.
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…
VIRTUAL BASTION 