Blog / Games

On Criticism

A critic’s job is not to reflect the public opinion, but to inform it.

Art may be judged by how well it achieves what it sets out to do.

Ratings should be meaningful and distinct. The difference between each rank of the rating system should be obvious to the reviewer and the reader.

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Bandits. Simple as that.

As a game developer, there’s nothing I want more than a passionate audience. Seeing Penny Arcade’s evangelical comic about Battle Chasers: Nightwar plucked an envious string in my heart. It’s exactly my kind of game: a turn-based RPG in the classic Final Fantasy style. I picked it up for Nintendo Switch to have something new to play on the bus. These are my first impressions after an hour of gameplay, having never read a Battle Chasers comic.

A spooky-looking vendor wearing deep robes and carrying a lanters says 'THINGS!' as you enter its shop.

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Me Suffer Now

ÛKBÛK: “Hello everyone, and welcome to your first day of orientation under the Bright Lord! My name is Ûkbûk and I’ll be your Experience Coordinator here at Cirith Ungol. We’re having these sessions in small groups so I can hear your concerns and listen to your feedback.

“I’m sure you’re a little disoriented after being forcibly branded, whether you were grabbed from behind or pounced on from a tower or because you didn’t see a human ranger sprinting directly at you in broad daylight across a flat plain while you were totally sober.”

An orc in black armor at night.

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Halo: Installation 07

During my time at 343 Industries, I toyed around with a pitch for a game for Xbox One. It would use the power of the new console to render an entire Halo installation. I wanted it to be a vehicle-centered sandbox with occasional on-foot bits, possibly in third person. Imagine taking a stock Warthog and upgrading it throughout the game, turning it into a Covenant Killer or Forerunner Flattener. I’m not saying I had it all figured out (hence why the pitch bombed in concept), so if this doesn’t seem fully baked to you… it wasn’t.

I wasn’t sure which installation to use, so I put down 07 as a starting point. They’ve all had such a grand history, even the ones Master Chief didn’t blow up. Please feel free to use this for your next game, Bonnie Ross.

Or whoever.

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Remember to Forget

What would you ask the Gaming Fairy to make you forget?

Final Fantasy VI

My absolute favorite RPG and, um, obvious inspiration. I love the characters, the way the story builds, losing Terra at one point, the escape from Vector, your brief foray into the land of Espers. Especially the stunning second half where the bad guy wins and destroys the world. Rebuild your team and take him down.

Final Fantasy VI cover art, Terra leans over her Magitek armor, overseeing the city below.

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That Next Next Next

The Resident Evil series is already known for its famous (infamous?) doors, and these new doors were almost surely the result of a lot of careful toil and consideration. I bet there was a whole team that worked on them. Month after month, just getting those doors nice and polished. We can’t ship until the doors are working, guys. Gotta pull some overtime and finish up the doors.

Kirk Hamilton on Kotaku

I’ve watched Markiplier play Resident Evil 7 and I agree: the door gameplay is amazing.

A spooky white door, barely ajar

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History

  1. Using FFVIIHook on Steam Deck for Final Fantasy VII Remastered
  2. The Last Rug Pull
  3. Mythic Quest Thoughts
  4. My PGP Public Key
  1. Using OBS Studio and ffmpeg to Record Games for YouTube
  2. Using GitHub Actions to Publish Static Sites to Azure
  1. On Criticism
  2. Using Premium Verizon CDN to run React's BrowserRouter
  1. 307 Pages I Got Back, Part 5
  2. 307 Pages I Got Back, Part 4
  3. 307 Pages I Got Back, Part 3
  4. FFMPEG commands for audio/video mixing
  5. 307 Pages I Got Back, Part 2
  6. 307 Pages I Got Back, Part 1
  1. 372 Pages I Never Got Back
  2. Bandits. Simple as that.
  3. My Sixteen Games
  1. Configuring Samba 5 to share a folder with full write permissions to guest users
  2. Me Suffer Now
  3. Peace Among Worlds
  4. Halo: Installation 07
  5. From Zero to Hero of Time
  6. Remember to Forget
  7. That Next Next Next
  8. Pillars of Whateveritwas
  9. The Average Saiyan Warrior
  10. Bravely Diffident
  1. The Best Jurassic Park Sequel
  2. Hi, I'm HERO
  1. Blackout
  2. Landing gear deployed
  3. So Wildstar
  4. It's that very special time of year, Greendale
  5. iPhones and lizard brains
  6. From the context it is clear what you mean
  7. Do you still want to meet?
  8. Kill meeee
  9. Dark Souls II playthroughs
  10. The Amazing Spider-dope
  11. Final Archstone
  12. More Archstone
  13. Archstone
  14. Horror-ible
  15. Paranoia+
  16. Old Ben on the mountain
  17. Target blank
  18. Clan Centurio knows how to treat its hard working members
  19. Steam Machines
  20. We shall l'cie
  21. Cooling a Playstation 3
  22. Next gen resmolutions
  23. New Year's in Ivalice
  1. The commander is ashore
  2. Fantasies twelve and thirteen
  3. Into the Nexus
  4. Backup
  5. Collector's cretins
  6. The good olde days
  7. OpenEmu
  8. Mulling Mac mini
  9. Driving blind
  10. Hyrule Warriors
  11. Rosalina
  12. Elite: Dangerous
  13. Free play
  14. The Desolation of Smaug
  15. Fallout free
  16. iOS 7 adoption
  17. Xbox, did you see that?
  18. Goodbye, Stanley
  19. Wag the tail
  20. Gold coin for your thoughts?
  21. Beginning Bitcoin
  22. Final Fantasy VIII
  23. The Happy Room and the Stairs
  24. Stanley entered the door on the left
  25. Base secured. Standby for new orders.
  26. Single payer video game
  27. Storm in a teacup
  28. A trapped wolf will cut off its own leg
  29. Assassin's appendix
  30. The wheels on the bus
  31. Riding dirty
  32. Marketing is a feature
  33. Everything is permitted
  34. What shall we do with a drunken sailor?
  35. Day One
  36. Obsolete
  37. Xbox One hunting
  38. Uphill both ways
  39. Recabling fever
  40. Next gen jitters
  41. Thor: The Dark World
  42. Nintenbored
  43. I will see to it personally
  44. Reviewing the Playstation 4
  45. Node Foreeever
  46. Knockin' on Node's door
  47. Junk Jack X
  48. iPad Air
  49. World of Warcraft: Warlords of Draenor
  50. The fastest way
  51. Internet Explorer-tan
  52. Back to the city
  53. Apocalypse cancelled
  54. Captain Zack Power
  55. It's crime time!
  56. People are protesting low land values
  1. Take a girl for a ride
  2. For Tyria!
  3. Guild Wars 2 is a bad game
  4. Reformat syndrome
  5. At the Nexus of madness
  6. It is now safe to use approved electronic devices
  7. iPhone tremors
  8. A challenger appearz
  9. Surface-level compromises
  10. 7.85 inch... oh no
  11. Magical, revolutionary advertising
  12. Gamer Theater
  13. Deus Ex: Human Revolution reflections
  14. Thoughts on Apple TV
  15. Fixing Apache on Mountain Lion
  16. Insanely Twisted Shadow Remnant
  17. Dark Souls
  18. EYE on Exodus
  19. Zeemote
  20. The Rolling Dead
  21. Sparrow flies away
  22. Memo to Charles Schumer: Publishers are not books
  23. The Binding of Seacrest County
  24. Brave
  25. Consuming iPads
  26. Frequently Asked Questions
  27. AMAZING MAN OR MENACE?
  28. Twitter cracking down
  29. Synthetic meat
  30. How I use Facebook
  31. Sublime Text hits version 2
  32. I have to touch it!
  33. EA as underdog
  34. Yes, I would like to gno mor
  35. My format: guardian
  36. Bad. Ass.
  37. How I organize
  38. Summer beach parties are coming
  39. Weyland Science Mission Procedures and Precautions
  40. Setting up Mac for PHP and Ruby websites
  41. Is there any life in the Vita?
  42. Do. Or do not. There is a 30-day trial.
  1. Moving to Mac
  2. You know what's wrong with Skyrim these days?
  3. I didn't ask for these boss battles
  4. This holy place has been desecrated
  5. Jordan's Mod Guide: FreeSpace + FreeSpace 2
  6. Jordan's Mod Guide: Descent + Descent 2 Rebirth
  7. It's a good day to kill, your majesty!
  1. Flower review imagined as a conversation between Morpheus and Neo in The Matrix
  2. The inhabitants of the Gayzor mountains
  1. A better life, underground
  2. Monster Captain Fn'Gaaah
  3. For starters, I'm going to do something about those robots!