Discussion
Five Things I Want From E3 2017
The Electronics Entertainment Expo has always been a highlight of my summer, ever since those early days of seeing Adam Sessler and Morgan Webb host the event on the G4 channel. I would always gather up some friends, make awesome food, and we would celebrate the game industry together. It’s like the Super Bowl for me, filled with potential, surprises, and hope. Now that I’ve been a jou...[Read More]
Toco Toco TV Shows Inspirations of Japanese Artists
Creativity is such a hard thing to determine its origins. What inspires a particular work of art? What did that individual experience that could have lead to this need to create? Just who is the artist? Toco Toco TV is a series of documentary-like videos that follows a Japanese creator to a place that inspires them. Completely unscripted, the artists choose wherever they like and the cameras captu...[Read More]
5 Reasons You NEED to Pay Attention to Silicon Valley Comic Con
Is the fledgling comic con created by Steve Wozniak the model that conventions should follow in the future?
Alex’s Five Favorite Game Journalists and Inspirations
Over the years that led to me being here at Marooners’ Rock, there have been plenty of journalists, shows, and critical pieces that have inspired me to constantly strive for better understanding of the video game medium as well as increase my quality in my work. These are just a few of the authors that I feel like do exceptional work, beyond the scope needed of a typical review. These are th...[Read More]
Thoughts on the NES Classic Edition Being Discontinued
Well, the internet has been set ablaze from the headlines that created tons of reactions from all sorts of people. Nintendo recently announced that it had discontinued production of the NES Classic Edition, at least in North America. While there is no word yet if this is the case globally, many consumers have shown their anger towards this announcement. This is where I hope to shed some light on t...[Read More]
IndieBox Brings Back Boxed PC Titles
I’ve always been a huge fan of physical games, which has led me to pursue a lot of special releases through companies like Merge Games or Limited Run. This is mostly how I expand my video game library on consoles, but there’s another company working on bringing back what made PC gaming so much more fun in its earliest days. IndieBox creates affordable collector’s edition games fo...[Read More]
Middle Earth: Shadow of War Looks Epic and Ambitious
Back in 2014, Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor was my favorite game of the year. While it is true that Shadow of Mordor borrowed heavily from other titles such as Assassin’s Creed and the Arkham series. What made this game special, however, was the original and unique Nemesis System, which has yet to be recreated by other studios. Monolith Productions knows how well this system worked, and is ...[Read More]
Mass Effect in Retrospect
Full disclosure, I am going to spoil the crap out of the entire Mass Effect franchise to date. If you’re not cool with that, I can totally understand that. Here’s the TL;DR though, I love Mass Effect like some people love Shakespeare. It’s probably the most important piece of art that I have ever experienced.
Blending Genres – A Study of Dragon Quest Builders
With how varied the medium of video games can be, there’s an interesting phenomenon that occurs when games combine established genres to make something unique. Video game genres are often fuzzy at best, especially when considering the literal definition of the role-playing game genre can be used to describe 99% of the industry if you stretch a bit. Experimental use of combining genre tropes and me...[Read More]
The Two Moments That Brought Me Into Gaming. What Are Yours?
Recently was my birthday. Having just turned 29, I began thinking of a piece to write that looks back and honors my history in gaming. My thoughts first went to figuring out why I love games so much, and it became quite clear as to what I wanted to write about. I wanted to go back to the beginning and reflect on the first two real moments and games that started me down a road I still walk today. T...[Read More]
Dirty Gaming Secrets: Gaming Classics I Missed Playing
Super Mario Bros, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, Tetris; These are games that if you haven’t played, you aren’t considered a “gamer”. At least, that’s what some people want you to think. There are those games that are considered to be the “holy grail” of video games, and for one reason or the other you may have not had the pleasure of experiencing s...[Read More]
Legion’s Chapter 2 Hits The Brakes And Sets Up What’s To Come
FULL SPOILERS FOR LEGION: CHAPTER 2!!! Legion’s second episode hit the breaks after last week’s brilliant first episode. That’s not to say it had bad pacing, as it did a good job of moving the story along. Opening the episode with a haunting but melodic cover of Talking Heads’ “Road to Nowhere,” we see David now being transported to Summerland by Syd and the oth...[Read More]