Video Games Archives - Page 16 of 17

Why I’m excited about Sony games (hopefully) coming to PC

Published January 30, 2020

On the 16th of January, it was reported that Horizon Zero Dawn was coming to PC. This announcement came from sources rather than an official announcement from Sony so there is some doubt as to whether or not it is happening. Nonetheless, it has provoked the ire of many Sony fans. As a PC player, I am excited and I wish to explain why.

First off, most of my excitement actually does not come from Horizon Zero Dawn itself. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t interested though. The visual style of the game looks lovely and I have always been a fan of RPGs so getting the chance to play one of the most popular RPGs of late would be great. When I heard the news, I can remember thinking “That’s cool if it’s true.” but not giving it much more thought.

I would like to play Horizon Zero Dawn someday. However, there is a Sony property I’m more excited about.

Leave a Comment

Western RPGs vs Japanese RPGs

Published January 20, 2020

Not only is Final Fantasy IX my favourite Final Fantasy game but it is also my favourite video game ever! Back in 2016 when I was playing through the Steam release of Final Fantasy IX, I was desperately looking for anything that analyzed and broke down the game and, to my good fortune, I found a few episodes of Dev Game Club, a podcast in which two game developers analyzed Final Fantasy IX from episodes 11 to 15. What stood out to me was that one of the developers had not played JRPGs before and found certain aspects of them…

2 Comments

Souls-Like: A New Genre?

Published January 9, 2020

I am a big fan of the Dark Souls games. Huge fan in fact. I consider Dark Souls and Dark Souls III to be some of the best games to have been created in recent memory. As a fan of these games, it is understandable that I have tried to seek out games similar to these, the term Souls-Like being coined to describe games similar to Dark Souls. Let’s start by defining what a Souls-Like is. Being such a new term, there can be disagreements on what defines Souls-Like games but commonalities typically include: Dark Souls has undoubtedly had an…

Leave a Comment

Video Games: Art over Realism

Published December 26, 2019

Ever since the beginning of the medium of video games, there has been a dream of photo-realistic graphics. Whenever a new console is released or a new form of graphics technology is created, developers immediately demonstrate games or tech demos that push towards realism. I have no doubt that this will also be the case for the newly announced Playstation 5 and Xbox Series X. It’s true that photo-realism can suit many types of games but, concurrently, I am often drawn to games that deliberately eschew realism for a different style of art. Let’s start with the disadvantages of photo-realistic…

Leave a Comment

My Ranking of the Main Final Fantasy Games Part 2

Published December 12, 2019

Here is the conclusion of my list that began in “My Ranking of the Main Final Fantasy Games Part 1“. 6. Final Fantasy XIII A controversial entry, I’m sure that many of you are shocked that I rank this game so highly. In contrast to many people, I actually like the characters and story (except for Snow who I found very irritating). The graphics are absolutely incredible (particularly for a 2009 game) with an art style that I actually prefer to the much more recent Final Fantasy XV. The combat system also feels highly engaging although I’ll admit that it…

Leave a Comment

My Ranking of the Main Final Fantasy Games Part 1

Published December 9, 2019

As I have mentioned in “Why I Prefer Turn-Based JRPGs” and “Is the PC a Good Platform for Japanese Games?“, I am a massive fan of Final Fantasy. I thought a nice way to discuss this series would be to rank the main Final Fantasy games that I have played and completed. That means no spin-offs will be ranked here and it also means that I will be excluding Final Fantasy II, XI and XIV as I have not completed them. Therefore there will be 12 entries on this list. Also a reminder that this list represents my personal opinions…

Leave a Comment

Why do I prefer Female Characters in Video Games?

Published November 21, 2019

If you have been reading this blog up to this point, you’ll know how much of a fan of Dark Souls I am. What you won’t know is that whenever I load up one of these games and enter the character creation, I always choose to create a female character. “Why do I do this?” I have wondered. The first thing to note is how few games feature females as the lead character. In particular it reminds me of something I heard about a game called “Life is Strange”. As the developer Dontnod was seeking out publishers, the thing they…

Leave a Comment

Is the PC a Good Platform for Japanese Games?

Published November 11, 2019

As mentioned in “Why I’m a PC Gamer“, my only source of video games comes from the PC platform. However, my tastes tend to lean towards games of Japanese origin. Many people have, historically, questioned me on this, stating that not many Japanese games are released on PC. Here, I am going to explain the dramatic change in the world of Japanese games on PC and how it has got to this point. First off, it is worth noting that PC gaming wasn’t always unpopular in Japan. At one point, it was the most popular platform for playing RPGs. In…

Leave a Comment

Epic Games Store: Why it’s not a bad thing

Published October 13, 2019

I think it’s fair to say that, whether or not you like Epic Games Store, it has been a controversial move by Epic to break the Steam monopoly on digital PC game sales. Here, I’m going to state why I think that the Epic Games Store is good for the PC community while also explaining why I don’t use it and have no plans to in the near future. I remember hearing the announcement that Epic was going to release a store around December 2018. Hearing that they were going to release free games every 2 weeks to users and…

1 Comment

Why I prefer Turn-Based JRPGs

Published October 10, 2019

Some of you may already be aware of this but the first video game that ever had a profound effect on me was Final Fantasy IV. The story and themes blew my 8 year old mind away and allowed me to view the world differently. However, the Active Time Battle system also had a profound effect on me, allowing me to control up to 5 characters at once and harness their abilities. Naturally I continued to gravitate towards turn-based JRPGs as I grew up but, in contrast to my personal tastes, JRPGs began to drop turn-based combat in favour of…

4 Comments

Category: Video Games