Recent content by The Abhorrent

This more or less sums it up. Japanese games are having a huge resurgence, and Nintendo alone put forth TWO landmark titles in their flagship franchises (Zelda and Mario of course). ... but for western games, it's been a monstrous train-wreck. Particularly for the "cash cow franchises"...

I'm a bit surprised this thread has gone on this long without one obvious example being mentioned: Shadow of the Colossus Big, ominous, and clearly implying something very grand; fitting for one of the most beloved games of all time. Also comes coupled with the best tagline of all time...

There's a number of factors which likely led to the blaze. Manufacturing defect, older piece of hardware, dust in the system (which is actually VERY tightly put together), quite possibly not shutting the console off (I believe the Wii had a "soft off" setting, indicated by an orange light...

I think a couple of more apt descriptors are called for at this point. To give a brief overview... Character-Builder RPG What most would associate with a "Western RPG", the primary focus and drive for the player to build up their avatar in the game's setting; this typically comes with a...

Is 18 years too old to enjoy gaming? To answer the question, here's another - How old is the average gamer? This is where it gets interesting, as that's a fairly well-known factoid. The average video-game player is almost 30 years old. Last I read, it was 29 years old... but that was...

To answer the basic question, why are "dark themes" often considered equivalent to "mature themes"? Very simple, those "dark themes" are not considered forbidden to any form of children's entertainment. So when you want to break out of that "child-like" feeling and come off as more mature...

As a general rule, 60 FPS games run smoother than 30 FPS. Nothing about responsiveness, but it feels more consistent and solid for whatever reason. I've seen the argument before that this is due frame-rate stutter; or more specifically, relative frame-rate stutter. Both frame-rates are...

Here's the general breakdown for what I feel between the two: --- Controller In a word: intuitive. There may not be a lot of variation for option on most controllers, but they just feel more natural and leads to MUCH smoother gameplay in general. I find it also enforces a "simple...

It's annoying, but there is at least a little bit of justification in this case; the Canadian dollar dropped in value quite a bit (relative to the American dollar) shortly after the PS4 launched. The decline was already in progress at the time of the launch, probably a few weeks into it, and the...

To go through a few quick recommendations, from most to least... Final Fantasy IX If there ever was a "definitive" game in the FF series, I'd have to name FF9; it's the nostalgia-driven homage to all the games which came before it, taking the best elements of each and bringing it all...

I find difficulty tends to be due to three main factors: Learning Curve Essentially, how fast the game requires you to learn to adapt to the evolving conditions. A gentle learning curve is easy to adapt to, even if at the end you're performing at a very high level of play; on the other hand...

To make open-world exploration more "meaningful" is a tall order, but as a general rule I think the best thing to go for is to ensure that any discoveries provides the player with the appropriate sense of satisfaction; in other words, the proper "reward". Of course, this doesn't mean that the...

"Back to the Basics" is probably the simplest way to put it. Perhaps I use it as an example a bit too often, but Xenoblade Chronicles for the Wii more or less is the type of game which I feels captures the elusive "classic JRPG feel" which the Final Fantasy series established ages ago but has...

If there's anything to complain about Nintendo's business practices, it's largely due to them not following suit with what the general (read: American) "follow the leader" approach; this generally means capitalizing on whatever's most popular at the time(multiplayer FPS, MMORPGs, and many...

The biggest issue with level scaling is that it's (infamously) difficult to implement correctly. On the other hand, fixed enemy levels have a much more manageable and can definitely implement a proper difficulty curve; plus it has a better reputation, even though it can just as easily be screwed...