PC games – Oddball Update

Ten Years Hence: Vampire – The Masquerade: Bloodlines

May 14, 2014May 14, 2014 Chief Oddball

Ssshh. Hear that sound? It’s the clatter of a hundred hard drives belonging to all the people who felt compelled to reinstall Vampire – The Masquerade: Bloodlines merely because I mentioned it. It’s a bit like Deus Ex in that way, in fact — only with vampires, prostitutes and dark humor.

Just When I Thought I Was Out, PC Gaming Pulls Me Back In

December 16, 2012December 17, 2012 Chief Oddball

It all started with Diablo III, and from there things began to spiral out of control. From Faster Than Light to System Shock 2 and even a brand new Radeon video card [!!], this is the tale of my rediscovery of PC gaming.

Oddball Review: FTL (Faster Than Light)

December 6, 2012December 6, 2012 Chief Oddball

I’m a huge fan of video games and space opera (Star Trek, Firefly and such), so when I discovered a tasty blend of both in FTL, a space exploration game for the PC, I was immediately intrigued. Although I didn’t immediately bite, a few days later a tweet arrived in my timeline from CheapassGamer informing me that FTL was on sale for 40% off.

Oddball Review: Legend of Grimrock

July 8, 2012January 23, 2013 Chief Oddball

Increasingly, indie games are becoming the jewel of the video game industry. Made by small development teams and often self-published, these games typically feature retro-style graphics and lack the massive amount of voiceover, prerendered cutscenes and other stuff that you’d expect from major publishers like EA or Ubisoft.

Oddball Review: Analogue: A Hate Story

June 4, 2012September 15, 2012 Chief Oddball

Analogue: A Hate Story is not the kind of game I typically review here, but secretly it belongs to one of my favorite casual game genres: the visual novel. Mostly a trope of Japanese studios, these games are similar to Choose Your Own Adventure books, played out in a visual way and with varying degrees of graphical richness.

Abandon Ship

January 13, 2012January 13, 2012 Chief Oddball 1 Comment

The topic I was discussing in my last entry — which marked the unheralded return of the Oddball Oddcast in a pared-down form — was not really done being hashed out in my head at the time I posted it. Shortly after I recorded those oh-so-scintillating 12 minutes of gabbling about the MMORPG Star Trek Online, I finally decided that I was gonna blow some walking-around money and get the “Original Series Bundle” through the game’s online store.

Oddcast 1/11/2012: Star Trek Online

January 11, 2012October 7, 2012 Chief Oddball

This episode of the Oddball Oddcast discusses Star Trek Online, soon to relaunch under a free-to-play model, and the nigh-uncontrollable compulsion I feel to play it despite having very little time or appetite for MMOs. Which half of my personality will win out: the dyed-in-the-wool Trekkie, or the busy dad with no patience for online buffoonery?

Retro Game Review: The Legacy: Realm of Terror

December 19, 2011July 3, 2013 Chief Oddball 12 Comments

[subtitle]Part 1 of the Oddball Review Survival Horror Series[/subtitle] One Sunday evening in September of 1993, I was browsing the shelves of the local mall’s Babbage’s store in hopes of finding a new computer game to play on the Dell 486 that I had only recently set up in my bedroom.

Always Bet On Duke.

September 4, 2010July 27, 2012 Chief Oddball 1 Comment

The unthinkable has finally happened. Duke Nukem Forever, 13 years in the making, butt-end of every “vaporware” joke on the Internet for at least the last eight of those 13, is really on its way. It was revealed, resurrected from the ashes of 3D Realms’ demise, this past Friday at the Penny Arcade Expo (PAX) in Seattle.

Retro Gaming Anniversary: Star Wars: KOTOR

July 15, 2010October 7, 2011 Chief Oddball 3 Comments

Seven years ago today — July 15th, 2003 — Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic was released for the original Xbox console. Now, I normally don’t go around spouting off release dates of games; I happened to run across this one a couple days ago only because I am once again playing this game.

Tag: PC games