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Which Video Game Character Has the Highest Salary?

By Jef Rouner

May 2, 2022

Video game characters may be the acme of escapism, but most of them do still have jobs within their own worlds. Which ones are paid the most? Online gaming site Solitaired did some number crunching to see who the biggest earner in the gamesphere is. Their pick for highest earner...

I Don’t Believe for a Second Hogwarts Legacy Won’t Eventually Have Microtransactions

By Jef Rouner

Mar 30, 2022

Hogwarts Legacy, the upcoming game based on J.K. Rowling’s Wizarding World, got a dramatic State of Play reveal showing off some of its features, and like all things Harry Potter it was immediately a subject of controversy. There are lots of reasons to pass on Hogwarts Legacy when it comes...

Opinion: How “Git Gud” Is Ruining the Country

By Jef Rouner

Mar 4, 2022

The latest From Software title, Elden Ring, is out now. The developer is famous for its incredibly punishing difficulty in their games, and every new release comes with a very tired argument about whether there should be an easy mode. On one side are gamers who would like to experience...

Breaking Up With Final Fantasy VI After Pixel Remaster

By Jef Rouner

Mar 3, 2022

Since Final Fantasy VI was released in 1994, I’ve bought it four times. Once on the original SNES when it was still called Final Fantasy III, twice on the PlayStation on both disc and the online store, and once again for the Game Boy Advance version that had a new...

Review: Horizon Forbidden West

By Jef Rouner

Feb 14, 2022

To get it out of the way, Horizon Forbidden West is a beautiful, well-crafted game that has an engaging story and a brilliantly conceived post-apocalyptic world. The sequel to 2017’s critically-acclaimed Horizon Zero Dawn picks up shortly after the epic final battle with the Hades artificial intelligence. Now, former outcast...

Werewolves Versus The Wizard of Oz: Wolf Among Us is Back!

By Jef Rouner

Feb 11, 2022

Even for a company famous for making incredible video games out of licensed properties, Telltale’s The Wolf Among Us in 2013 was a high-water mark. Based on the popular DC comic series about mythical characters living secret lives in New York City, it was both a critical and financial success...

Best Video Games of 2021

By Jef Rouner

Dec 23, 2021

It’s been sort of a dismal year in gaming. Ongoing supply chain issues continue to stall the new generation of consoles and releases, and a series of exposes about the abuses rampant in the video game industry have made participating in a lot of it feel like a human rights...

Please Stop Putting Stamina Bars in Every Video Game

By Jef Rouner

Nov 23, 2021

Why do all my power fantasies lately want me to feel exhausted? Doesn’t life already do that enough? It’s time to end the ubiquitous presence of the stamina bar in every damn video game. The stamina bar isn’t a new concept by any means. Shadow of the Colossus used to...

Spiritfarer: How Being Broken Makes a Game More Beautiful

By Jef Rouner

Oct 8, 2021

Warning: Spoilers for Spiritfarer. Spiritfarer was released in 2020, but the updates that have continued to drop mean that just now in 2021 do I really feel the game is finished. Despite that, the title kind of remains slightly broken, but in a weird way it enhances the overarching themes...

Theory: Dr. Mario is Mario and Luigi’s Dad

By Jef Rouner

Oct 1, 2021

With the recent announcement of a Super Mario movie, I’ve been thinking more and more about the Super Mario mythology. Specifically, how does a plumber with super jumping abilities who mostly serves as a one-man splinter cell in a magic kingdom have time to also sometimes be a doctor? My theory:...

Growing Up Poor and the Art of Video Game Item Hoarding

By Jef Rouner

Jul 27, 2021

Something comedian Robin Tran said has stuck hard with me: “I think there’s a lot of unexamined panic from fearing scarcity and it comes up in random ways, not using items in video games, not throwing away leftovers.” That sentence hit me like a train because I grew up poor...

Comicpalooza Returns, With Mandalorians and Lokis Galore

By Pete Vonder Haar

Jul 18, 2021

Fan conventions used to be the domain of — in the words of Grace from Ferris Bueller's Day Off — geeks and dweebies (and to a lesser extent, wastoids and dickheads). Having attended gaming cons in the early '80s, I can personally attest to the overwhelming unkempt white maleness of such...

This Is The Way ... To Comicpalooza 2021

By Pete Vonder Haar

Jul 15, 2021

Delta variant be damned, American (and Houston) are pushing to return to something resembling normalcy, and that means the return of our beloved Comicpalooza. The event was canceled last year, thanks to COVID, but returns in somewhat abbreviated fashion for 2021 (Saturday and Sunday only this year, with more outdoor...

5 Things A Metroidvania Needs

By Jef Rouner

Jul 5, 2021

Metroidvania is a term used to describe a certain sub-genre of video games that mimic the style of Super Metroid and Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. In general, they are non-linear, two-dimensional side-scrolling action games that have a focus on exploring a huge area that is unlocked with power-ups. I’ve...

Five Nights at Freddy’s Creator Defends Anti-LGBT Political Donations

By Jef Rouner

Jun 15, 2021

Scott Cawthon, the Houston-born/Austin-based creator of the hit horror game series Five Nights At Freddy’s, is a major donor to Republican politicians. Records from Open Secrets show that since 2015 he has made $42,204 in contributions, almost all of them to Republican candidates. The sole exception is former Hawaii Representative...

5 Things I Hated About Resident Evil: Village

By Jef Rouner

May 18, 2021

For the record, I think Resident Evil: Village is utterly brilliant. It’s terrifying, fun to play, and certainly breathing new life into a franchise that has been limping along on nostalgia for a decade. The thing is, when a game is really, really good, it actually makes the flaws even...

Console Woes Could Mean a Growing Gaming Wealth Gap

By Jef Rouner

Apr 27, 2021

I got a PlayStation 5, but I’m still really unhappy with how I did. Originally, I was going to use part of my first stimulus check in 2020 to set-up a pre-order for the system at GameStop like I did with my PS4. Delays in getting that check meant I...

Revisiting Resident Evil 7 Ahead of Village

By Jef Rouner

Apr 14, 2021

I was obsessed with Resident Evil as a teenager to the point that I got into at least one screaming argument with my brother over a plot point in a spin-off novel (Caliban Cove, represent). As the series moved away from its survival horror roots into a more military tactical...

Controversial “Arab Murder Simulator” Coming to Consoles

By Jef Rouner

Apr 12, 2021

Six Days in Fallujah, a game that is being referred to as an “Arab murder simulator,” is being released on consoles after years of controversy and backlash. Games where American soldiers kill endless waves of Arab enemy combatants are nothing new, and even make up some major franchises like Call...

10 Essential Games to Buy Before the PS3 Store Shuts Down

By Jef Rouner

Apr 5, 2021

Sony has announced that they will be closing down their PS3 online store on August 27. As someone that still plays their PS3 regularly, this is a sore blow, especially because there are still a lot of games on the system that have not been added to the PS4 and...

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