I have always loved arcades. I think there is really nothing like going to one, playing a bunch of cabinets, and hanging out with cool people. Recently, I’ve had the opportunity to try out a new-to-me arcade game called Killer Queen, and I need to talk about it.
Credit: Wandersong – When you Bard the world Bards with you
Valentine’s Day is a complicated holiday for me. On one hand, it brings tasty heart shaped treats! On the other, with those treats comes an onslaught of heteronormative marketing and oddly strict gender roles. If you too are feeling the heteronormative heat, may I suggest cooling off with a good game with LQBTQIA+ themes? Below are some of my favorite games organized in two categories: Play As A Gay, and Queer Representation. Now go forth — be gay, play games!
Ah, the walking simulator.
Also known as “story rich” games, they’re my favorite form of storytelling and preferred video game genre. For quite a few of us, 2020 has entered the arena swinging. While I’m all for de-stressing with a violent video game (Left For Dead 2 has gotten me through many deadlines), sometimes it’s better to escape into a good story. Walking simulators let us experience a story in first person POV, and their clearly defined check lists of objectives can take off some of the pressures of existence. Cue daily dose of existential dread. What follows are five of my favorite examples of story driven games, in no particular order. Now let’s get to it—these simulators were made for walking.
If you love TeeTurtle, Unstable Unicorns, and D&D, this Kickstarter campaign will make your day.
I like games, and I like stories. Having grown up in the 1980s, I spent many a night playing text-based adventure video games like The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy and pouring hundreds of hours into navigating my way through Choose Your Own Adventure books. For me, it was a decade of adventure that fueled a love for roleplaying games.
I love detective games. The type of game that asks you to meticulously snoop through rooms and piece the puzzle together. What we in my humble apartment refer to as “Snoopy Susan Simulators.” My most recent discovery in this genre—and if you follow me on Twitter you likely already know where this is going—is The Return Of The Obra Dinn. A Snoopy Susan Simulator, masquerading as an Insurance Fraud Inspector Simulator, masquerading as 60 murder mysteries and whodunits. A game that begs for an 100 percent complete status, and if you want that 100 percent, buddy you best get to snooping.
This is part two of our PAX West 2019 coverage. Read part one here.
Welcome to the first Arbitrary Award Show round up! These prestigious, yet completely arbitrary, awards are chosen by a committee of one—myself—and laid at the digital feet of their incredible developers. This year’s PAX West was bursting with talent, but in the end I could only grant ten awards. Let’s start the show!
If you’re into tabletop RPGs, you have probably encountered the work of Grant Howitt — whether you know it or not. He’s the creator of the one-page wonder Honey Heist, which has been taking the gaming world by storm from Critical Role to your buddy’s after-work hangout. He’s got plenty of others up his sleeve: Pride and Extreme Prejudice, Big Gay Orcs, and the recent street racing raccoon epic Crash Pandas.
I’ll admit that when Honey Heist first landed, I considered it cute as a Twitter post but unfeasible beyond that. I was wrong. And I was happy to be wrong.