Charles Singletary

Record Store Day, an annual event started in 2008 in order to bring attention to independent music stores, fueled a wave of vinyl nostalgia that last year reached a record high of $416 million in sales—the highest since 1988. Digital sales and streaming still soar over physical music, but vinyl is once again a vital part of the market. Independent video games exist in a similar corner, highlighting a more intimate creative process that draws in a loyal, though not massive, customer base.

A different perspective on the video games vs art discussion focused on voxelart by Sir Carma

Would you live on the streets for three years in order to pursue your passion?

“I knew you were smart because you’d pause the game and bring me the dirty diaper,” my mom said. “Then you’d get changed and go back and start the game.”

In an in-person interview held before Star CitizenCon 2018, I asked one of the most pressing questions about the game's eventual launch.

Star Citizen is a highly ambitious game that is regularly under the microscope. It amassed large amounts of money through its Kickstarter campaign and subsequent opportunities to purchase advanced ships well before the game's launch, which has attracted criticisms of the developer's goals with this type of project funding. An additional concern...

Major forces in the gaming industry have gotten into the habit of bottling magic in the form of classic console revivals in miniature forms and Sega is next up to connect a direct line of nostalgia to gamers with the announcement of the Sega Genesis Mini.

Forty is quite a few games to preload on the Sega Genesis Mini and the company has only revealed 10, so there is a lot more room for Sega to celebrate the legacy and life of its 16-bit console. Here are our top 10 choices for games that should be sure picks to make the Sega Genesis Mini’s final roster.

What does it mean to be human? One’s flaws? Ambitions? Emotions? Is it human to feel? Think? Be compassionate? To be empathetic? Does lacking any or all of those make one inhuman?

“There’s an implication that’s not spoken that you can’t be AAA and Indie at the same time which is the most obvious problem,” David solemnly responds when asked about the indie perception. In my avid defense of indie, that fact escapes even me at times. Elite: Dangerous, Gigantic, and upcoming Star Citizen and Hellblade (which has been tagged specifically as “AAA Independent” by Ninja Theory) are but a few of the indie games that have been developed creatively independent and you’d be hard pressed not to recognize them as AAA games.

The Uncharted 4 series comes to an unsatisfying conclusion.

When the trailer for Beyond Good & Evil came to an end at Ubisoft’s E3 conference, I can imagine a couple friends of mine thinking something like this:

“Ahh yea this is that random game no one knows of but Charles rambled about for a little while and keeps expecting at every E3.”

“Even though it's well worn and beloved territory for linear media, games have barely scratched the surface on how to tell a coming of age tale.”

“Hunger Games was really pivotal because it opened up a lot of doors. But there was still a fight to let people know I’m not just a brute, silent, tough guy,” states Dayo. “ There’s a lot more that I can do to show range. The Hunger Games opened up doors but I still had to go into those doors and close.”

Despite its downfalls, though, the good parts of the game are so good. I spent 50+ hours in the game’s version of 15th century Bohemia and that’s with me rushing through the latter half of the game, leaving plenty of interesting side-quests to be unfinished. I’d have done a whole lot more if I didn’t want to get the review out in a reasonable amount of time, and I will definitely be returning in the future.

Absolver, on its surface, is a multiplayer brawler with progression elements. At its center, it is a hardcore RPG that will reward players that invest in it heavily and it has more than enough value at its lower price. The game’s most significant issues have been addressed with a patch, thankfully, and any that step into the world of Andal is in for a treat.