The Arcade is Dead, Long Live the Arcade!
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 04/26/15 at 02:58 PM CT
Gamers who grew up during the late ‘70s, the ‘80s, or the early ‘90s no doubt remember at least something about the precursors to home game consoles. Arcade machines stood as location-based gaming attractions that required repeated, small payments in order to partake in the experience.
When PCs started to become more common in the home and when the home videogame console market took off in the 3rd Generation with Nintendo’s NES, the arcade began to suffer. It seemed that more people who were interested in playing videogames would rather plunk down a larger sum of money for ownership of a game machine and discreet pieces of software than travel to a destination and continually feed coins to a number of arcade boxes.
Unfortunately, even with the waning popularity of arcades and the booming popularity of in-the-home videogame entertainment, the game developers themselves had a very hard time shaking an ‘Arcade Mentality’ when designing their games. The reason so many …
Vaguely Related Review: Ansell Touchscreen Gloves
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 04/19/15 at 02:29 PM CT
Do you live where it gets cold during certain times of the year? Maybe you live in the desert where it gets bitterly cold every night? Maybe you just live in the Midwest where the weather can’t make up its mind whether to be Summer or Winter?
Presumably, no matter where you live, you own a touchscreen device of some sort (unless you’re Amish). Bitter cold temperatures and the bare fingers typically required to operate our modern smartphones and tablet computers don’t go well together. Fumbling with a touchscreen device with Winter gloves or mittens is a recipe for disaster via cold glass shattering on the frozen ground after inevitably dropping the thing, whereas foregoing hand protection is an invitation for frostbite at the worst, generalized discomfort and misery at the best.
Worry not, touchscreen owners living in cold environs! Ansell has you covered with their line of touchscreen-treated gloves. I received a pair for Christmas, and have finally had ample time to …
PC Gaming: Old Arguments vs. New Truths
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 04/12/15 at 03:51 PM CT
It wasn’t too long ago that I was fervently anti-PC when it came to gaming. I had a plethora of reasons for hating the PC format when compared side-by-side with the console format that had stood, unassailable since the 1990s. Sure, I would occasionally acquiesce in order to play a really great D&D game that was PC-only, but for the most part I wanted nothing to do with PC gaming.
Then the 7th Generation happened. Consoles started becoming more PC-like and PC started becoming more console-like to the point where I find the two formats to be the same thing. And out of the five competing gaming platforms of the 8th Generation (PS4, XBONE, WiiU, Android Microconsoles, and PC), the only one that hasn’t left be with a feeling of complete disgust and disdain is PC.
Yet somehow, among the masses who have purchased an 8th Gen console and actually seem to enjoy it, the same old, tired, obsolete arguments against PC gaming are still making the rounds. Why does such misinformation …
Backlog: The Embiggening - April, 2015
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 04/04/15 at 01:12 PM CT
The Fools are out in full-force this April, buying up every remastered game they can get their paws on. Unfortunately for the rest of us, the Fools and their habits have resulted in a month that is completely dominated by remasters and ports. The only upside is that we are, once again, spared the sting of licensed shovelware.
Jumping right into the ports and remasters, the PS4 and XBONE are each getting one PC game: “Tropico 5” for Sony and “State of Decay” for Microsoft. Both 8th Gen copycats are also getting “The Golf Club,” in case their owners were pining for some last-gen download-only ball-beating. PC is getting the formerly console-exclusive release of “Grand Theft Auto 5” (which has no hype anymore, at least), as well as an ‘Omega Edition’ of a mobile phone game, “Out There.” The 3DS is getting a port of last-gen’s most acclaimed RPG, “Xenoblade Chronicles,” while almost everyone is getting a complete edition rehash of “Dark Souls …
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