video games – Page 2 – Oddball Update

Amped and Enjoying the Spoils

September 25, 2012September 26, 2012 Chief Oddball

It’s been an…interesting few days. Our son Connor went through quite an ordeal last week, coming down with a case of what we later realized was roseola. And with our trip to Michigan coming up soon, I’ve got a lot of work to finish in a short amount of time.

Face Value: Borderlands 2

September 24, 2012October 4, 2012 Chief Oddball

Gearbox Software has outdone themselves with their first follow-up to their 2009 sleeper hit, delivering a game disguised as a non-stop carousel of every action movie trope imaginable. Combining some of the most addictive aspects of modern shooters, RPGs and dungeon crawlers (think: loot farming), Borderlands 2 offers a ridiculous amount of things to do and somehow makes them all incredibly addictive.

Nerdgasm

September 18, 2012September 19, 2012 Chief Oddball

Today was definitely a day for geektastic news. In addition to the arrival of a much-anticipated new video game, I also finally received some very good news on the smartphone front (hint: it has something to do with an iPhone trade-in and a shitload of money from same).

Fighting Dynamics: DOA4 vs. Tekken 6

July 19, 2012September 11, 2012 Chief Oddball 2 Comments

Once in a while, I like to play a good fighting videogame. In the early ’90s when Street Fighter II was all the rage, my friend and I would battle it out on my SNES home version despite the fact that neither of us was terribly good at it.

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.

Oddball Review: Deus Ex: Human Revolution

May 9, 2012May 9, 2012 Chief Oddball 6 Comments

Although I am an avid video gamer, there are two things I rarely do: 1) finish a game, and 2) start a second playthrough of a game (and never one that I have just finished). Two weeks ago, I did both.

After-Action Report: Mass Effect 3

April 13, 2012January 23, 2013 Chief Oddball 4 Comments

I finished Mass Effect tonight. Not just the third game in the trilogy, but the trilogy itself. The essence of what Mass Effect has meant to me for the last five years, ever since I became enamored with the first game in 2007.

Multi-Xboxing and the Epic Game Backlog

April 2, 2012April 2, 2012 Chief Oddball

I recently added a second Xbox 360 to my home console array, marking the first time that I’ve had two Xboxes up and running simultaneously. I was really interested in getting one of the new slim-style Xboxes, and rather than trade in my old “fat” console, I decided to move it downstairs to the living room.

My (Xbox) Kingdom for a Power Supply

March 2, 2012March 2, 2012 Chief Oddball

You've probably heard Microsoft tout the redesigned Xbox 360 Slim as being "whisper quiet". So I was a little surprised when I powered up my new Slim console and discovered that it sounds not unlike my Jasper-based Final Fantasy XIII Super Elite.

Tag: video games