nathanicus

Indie Games: The Movie I recently viewed one of the most important documentaries about indie games developers. It’s not the most exciting thrill ride available to the home streamer but it was chock full

Games That Make Me Think: The Outer Worlds Typically, science fiction universes are world-built from alternative political economies that are then stressed and stretched to their limits by the hostile

Okay, I Missed This One: Days Gone Days Gone is a post-apocalyptic pseudo-open world survival game. I say “pseudo-open world” because the game progresses in mission-based modules that, at times, artificially

Nathanicus Gamer First Impression Extinction Level Event Special: Death Stranding At long last, we have the latest masterpiece from the auteur game designer, Hideo Kojima. Death Stranding is a game about

The Maestro of Game Design, Hideo Kojima, built incentives to avoid unnecessary killing into the Metal Gear Solid series’ in-game player performance evaluation system. To achieve the highest rank in MGS,

Ghost Recon: Wildlands was a fine game. It asks the player to control an operator while at the same time leading a fire team. Senior NCOs frequently said that being a fire team leader was the hardest job

As the cold winds of autumn herald the dark frosts of winter, which bring death to the green landscapes and azure skies that spring hath wrought, let us contemplate our own demise, lest we forget the ephemeral

Nathanicus Gamer First Impression: Ghost Recon: Breakpoint Player Character In the brilliant Ghost Recon: Wildlands, you begin the game as a competent four-man fire team. In this GR, you play as literally

Nathanicus Gamer Gamebook Review: Baldur’s Gate Descent Into Avernus Score 4/5 Background Lore This gamebook really is a journey into the Hells. The background of this adventure is the Blood War of the

Nathanicus Gamer Book Review: Literary Gaming by Astrid Ensslin Score 2/5 This book is about the analysis of the literary element of digital games that fuse the literary with the ludic. The author is careful

It is all too tempting to make meta meaning out of this essay by highlighting the first part of the first game in the series. I shall fully yield to this temptation. It’s just too perfect to make the first

Nathanicus Gamer Book Review: Boss Fight Books’ Chrono Trigger by Michael P. Williams Score: 4/5 When it comes to video games as artistic systems, Chrono Trigger is kino (not to be confused with Ayla’s

FFI requires rather little in the way of strategy. The most important basic strategy is to place a healer (White Mage or Red Mage) behind at least one tank (i.e. Warrior). Only one healer is needed, and

This is my first topical study of FF gameplay. It is by no means comprehensive. The focus is on rooting out critical aspects that I believe are interesting and experientially important as a player. I try

I’m going to be replaying the FF cycle sequentially. I’ll be doing it on iOS, so take that for what it’s worth. As I go along, I’m going to be sharing four types of posts on each: General critical notes

In CT, the player character’s ultimate goal is to defeat a near omnipotent alien parasite, Lavos. Lavos is a Lovecraftian-style Eldritch horror. Like Lovecraft’s own Cthulhu mythos stories, CT’s narrative

This is a chain about furious gaming thought: theory and praxis. I believe video games will soon emerge as a culturally significant art form through their first Golden Age. Games are fun, but they can