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Here, you'll find up to 20 of the most recent posts from the people who have the good taste to follow my blog. Only public results gleaned from the last 200 overall posts to HG Blogs will be displayed. If you see no results below, that means not a lot of people are following me, or my followers haven't been active in a long while, or they simply aren't sharing their posts.
Some people feel differently about Zelda than I do. They are wrong and I am right. |
I have no way of knowing what the person next to me is thinking, and I can’t possibly hope to know every thought and preference of a stranger I meet online. Even my own tastes and preferences change over time. With that said, I’m pretty sure I’ve never met someone who played and really liked the original Zelda games but thinks that The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom “isn’t a real Zelda game.”
Please don’t roll your eyes!
We notice broken things because of all that isn't. |
I couldn't not come back here. World culture is doing as it does, galvanizing into groups who are fixated on values, behaviors or needs. That's a little vague. I'll say this instead: We're forming two groups. Those give a toss about others and those who give a toss about themselves. It's sobering to read about JoeTheDestroyer's divorce. As a child - and adult - I grew up with that threat always looming over my head, and I am fortunate that after forty years the relationship of my parents has taken a healing turn.
Now I'm on Campfire. |
I just won't give up. Hey, wait. That's good news. Who says that we don't need editors? We do, of course, to learn from. They also have their pulse on things we don't get with our heads in the clouds and fingers on keys.
My Super Mario Wonder review is the product of some good feedback from a skilled, professional editor and Hemmingway - the web app. See, it turns out that post-graduate writing and the average reader don't mix. Better to save that for my school essays. Which, by the way, I'm about a little over a year from graduating. Yay! (I mean that.)
https://www.campfirewriting.com/explore/65c3d6746b28161300589ee3
A funny thing happens when you buy almost no video games for a few years... |
I like video games, but I've not done a great job lately of buying the ones I want. Going back several years, I've told myself, "I'll get that eventually," and then I haven't. The trend kicked in hard in August of 2020, when I made a conscious effort to focus more on writing my fiction, but the neglect had already started ahead of that.
Anyway, I've now fallen WAY behind. So I decided to make a new wish list, which I'd not done in a long while, and I limited myself to 52 titles (one for each week in a year) that I'm most irritated about not yet acquiring. Here it is:
Atelier Ryza 3: Alchemist of the End & the Secret Key (Switch)
Atelier Sophie 2: The Alchemist of the Mysterious Dream (Switch)
Bayonetta 3 (Switch)
Blue Reflection: Second Light (PS4)
Bravely Default II (Switch)
I have so many games in my library at this point that it feels like a total waste to not play them at least occasionally. Yesterday, I did! |
Ever have one of those random days where you just feel like playing old video games? I have them periodically, but usually I don’t act on the impulse because I have other things on my agenda. Yesterday, I ignored my other agenda and got down to some gaming. I thought maybe I would play and review a game, but none of yesterday’s sessions reached the point where a review is imminent. So instead, I’ll talk about them here.
First up, I had been wanting to finally play the first Shantae game for a long while. I’d purchased every game in the series (and even backed one of them thanks to a Kickstarter campaign) when my finances were in a better place. The series is so clearly up my alley, and yesterday was my moment to finally dip my toes in that water. I… wish it had gone better.
I just thought I'd give you all my take on the impending 3DS/Wii U eShop closure, since no one asked... |
Over the years, I have made very clear my passion for Nintendo games. The NES didn’t introduce me to the medium, but it came close. Mario Bros. was the first game to truly capture my imagination and make me the gamer I am today, before I had even heard of Nintendo. My obsession with the media has expanded to include games on all sorts of consoles, from Sega and Microsoft and Sony, but I always pay slightly closer attention to the big ‘N.’ Which is why it always bugs me when I find myself at a virtual precipice, looking over a kingdom’s worth of games that are about to disappear from the marketplace in one huge event.
Things that matter because we want them to. |
Two more weeks. It's been six so far and apparently I'm healing slow. There could be a real, identifiable reason for that which I will be investigating. In the meantime I wear the Aircast boot for a little longer, but not when I'm at home. It's neat that we have something this useful, but not that it barely holds together in some places. Modern medicine is complicated.
I have a box of computer components which have little value to me. Video cards are annoying. You'll get the latest beast only to find yourself outpaced within a period of months or years. Progress is nice, but this is why consoles are comforting. The age of the Nintendo Switch does not diminish how much fun it is, and legacy hardware has always been one of the strengths of gaming.
So I'm still in the top 30 of reviewers? That's good, right? |
It may be premature to announce your return before you actually make the stage, but I'm doing it anyway. Honestgamers is still where I am most read. When I last posted here I was going on about writing and so on. I haven't stopped, naturally, but I have shifted focus.
I am working with an editor now. Pretty crazy, right? You guys get to hear it first. So, it's actually awesome and I'm learning a lot. It doesn't feel right to get into details, but I can talk about other things that have happened in my life.
Well...I had a slew of health issues and haven't been functional for a while. Lately I fractured my ankle, so I'm healing from that as well. Wait, wasn't I supposed to be talking about good things that have happened?
I've just published the first entry in a new series that I think some of you might like. |
I don't post often here about my fiction because I'm mostly here to talk about video games, but sometimes I make an exception. Today is one of those days, as I've just released the first book in a new urban fantasy series for which I have high hopes.
Death and the Shifter introduces Molly Coyle, a young private investigator working in Salem, Oregon who recently died but now has been revived as a reaper who works for Azrael, an angel of death. Alongside her trusty talking feline companion, Fuzzy, she must hunt down and execute various deserving targets. Her first potential victim is a wolf shifter. But as you might expect, things don't exactly go as planned.
A few reasons why |
Just wanted to make a small, quick post about it in case anyone is confused.
Quick, short reasons why:
-I've had the name since the very, VERY early 00s on various sites, message boards, and online gaming accounts, but I just got tired of using it. Also, from my experience, it's very easy for people to make fun of the name when they see it for the first time. ("Hey, it's Pizza Hut!" "Oh, hey dickbutt!")
My first new book in a very long time is available on Amazon, and you may not even have to pay to read it. |
This is a video game site, so I try not to post often about personal things unrelated, even though this is my blog. However, this is one of those times when I'm going to make an exception because how could I not?
As this post's title notes, I've published another book. The last time I did that was in the year 2000, when this site was much smaller and (as far as I can recall) I didn't know any of you who are likely to read this post today. A lot can change in over 20 years.
I'm selling off most of my physical library of PS4 games, many of them unopened, and that starts... NOW! |
Recently, I moved from one apartment to another and the process made me realize I have way too much... stuff. A lot of that stuff, admittedly, is games. And I do like games. I like owning a lot of them physically, even. But I've realized I need to be more selective about what I buy and keep, and I've accepted that a lot of the great games in my collection would give greater joy to other collectors while I shuffle priorities. So I purchased a lot of digital versions of games I own, and I went a little nuts and now I need to sell some stuff in a hurry.
You now have more time to snag PS3 and Vita games you may have missed, though PSP games are still hurtling toward their imminent demise. |
Today Sony made a proclamation and it was actually good news for a change. In a special announcement, Jim Ryan revealed the company has (mostly) reversed course on its recent decision to stop selling games from various older platforms on the PlayStation Store.
Currently, PlayStation 3, PSP and Vita games were set to disappear from the store on July 2nd (in the case of the first two) and August 27th (in the Vita's case). This has unexpectedly changed.
Here's a look at what I have and what I consider the standout software on a number of platforms affected... |
I've already blogged about why I believe it is a shame the PlayStation 3, Vita and PSP software libraries will no longer be available for purchase after July 2nd (for PS3 and PSP) and August 27th (for Vita). I won't repeat all of that here. Instead, I thought it might be useful to outline some of the games you can still buy today through the ludicrously awkward PlayStation Store on your PS3 console that you won't be able to purchase after the above dates.
Escapism becomes more difficult than it needs to be when we don't fight to keep the doors accessible. |
On the NES, there is a game called Day Dreamin' Davey. It's about a young school lad who escapes into the worlds of his dreams and has adventures. I've played it before, and even recently added it to my collection. Someday, I'll probably play it a lot more. But my point in mentioning the game isn't to remind you that it exists. Rather, it's to say that if you changed the protagonist's name to Jason, it might well be a game about me.
The SNES played host to a lot of great games, many of them available on Nintendo Switch Online. But some greats are sadly missing... |
Inspired by Indie Gamer Chick's (currently, as of the time I post this) ongoing dive through Super Nintendo gems of yesteryear, I decided to put together a list of the 20 Super Nintendo games I would most like to see added to the Nintendo Switch Online service to better help that service live up to its potential.
Is it still fair to expect games to make the sort of impact they once did on our lives? |
I'm sort of going somewhere with this, but before I get to that dubious destination, please humor me as I make one of the most obvious statements in the history of obvious statements: there are a lot more video games available in 2020 than there were in 1990.
Why make such an obvious statement? For starters, I made it because I think it's easy to forget. We look at all the great games coming out these days, and sometimes the temptation is to say something like "They sure don't make 'em like they used to," which is based on a few factors but largely--to my mind--is based on the difficulty developers now have making an impact. Not a lot of new games, even some very good new games, can keep us talking about them even as little as three months after their release.
My life is going through a big change, and not just because of COVID-19. |
HonestGamers headquarters is moving again. By that, I mean that I myself am moving again. And since the site kind of goes where I go, so too are the site's headquarters. I have lived on the Oregon Coast for most of these last 15 years, after moving here from Central Oregon. Now I am moving elsewhere in Oregon.