The top RPGs from the 1990s onward are essential for fans, redefining the genre’s standards. Skyrim offers expansive moddable gameplay, while The Witcher 3 delivers impactful choices and story. Final Fantasy VII is celebrated for its narrative, and Ocarina of Time is notable for immersive play. Mass Effect set precedents with its narrative and gun-based action. These games exemplify the transformative escapism RPGs provide, setting benchmarks for future titles.
Starfield is an up-and-coming game that’s really releasing, unlike Star Citizen, except that like Star Citizen it seems the game may only be ethereal: the physical edition will follow games like Fallout 76 and not offer a physical disc. Something fun to mention about Fallout 76 is that I got burned hard, I paid more for a physical copy only to get a code in a disc box that, may I add, was made of the absolute flimsiest plastic. Boo on you Todd Howard. This story starts with a tweet on June 25th 2023 where Bethseda said that the game would include only a code in the box. Following that, they immediately deleted the tweet. Screenshot below: The tweet is now missing. No word yet from Bethesda on whether Starfield will include a physical edition or not. It’s quite clear though that if they don’t include physical media then they…
There’s a lot in the world of Final Fantasy. I mean a lot. There are a total of 13 mainstream non-MMO games and a ton of spinoffs like the Crystal Chronicles, Tactics, etc. I’ve recently gone on a binge of replaying some of the older titles and it’s made me go huh – how would you even get started in the series. If you started for instance at FF8, it would be so confusing. I wouldn’t think much of the series. I started with FF1 and FF3 (US) and skipped until 10, 12, and then went back to 7 and 8 which made them all make a lot more sense than if I just started with 7 or 8. So I’ve put together my thoughts on the best order to play and various issues with some of the games. These are my opinions and are not universally shared. For some,…
The answer is a resounding: of course, it’s up to you to answer is Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack worth it. It’s an objective answer because there’s a few things in play with the question: do you play Animal Crossing or not? If you do, then it’s obviously very much worth it. If you don’t, then well… we dive deeper into that below. Prices validated as of 2023. Since this is a personal decision, let’s start with facts before we share opinion: Price The price boils down to the below: Nintendo Switch OnlineExpansion Pack1 Month: $3.993 Month: $7.9912 Month: $19.99Family (12 Months, 8 Accounts): $34.9912 Months: $49.99$30 increaseFamily Membership (12 Months, 8 Accounts): $79.99$40 increaseComparison between Nintendo Switch Online and the Expansion Pack Features Nintendo Switch OnlineExpansion PackOnline PlayNES & Super NES Game LibraryCloud Game SavesSmartphone AppVoice in Multiplayer (via App)Special Offers (free items in some games)Ability to purchase…
We wanted to put together an all in one resource on how to go out and find your next game purchase at the lowest price, for PC & console. The below guide covers the best deal site aggregators which let you search across multiple vendors and we also cover the best cash back rewards programs that you can leverage without any kind of credit card signup or formal card cash back program. You’d be surprised, sometimes you can get 8% back on a $300 purchase, which is $24 extra dollars back for doing nothing. The reason why is that it’s just easy to buy the game directly off of Steam or your console’s storefront. You search for the title and pay whatever they’re asking for. The problem is that with just a little bit of effort, you can find the game likely way cheaper. Then, on top of that, with…
In a recent video by Karl Jobst, he proposes that we’re in a retro video game bubble that’s been artificially inflated by the same folks who have done so with coins and comic books. That prices right now are unsustainable and that the market will collapse, leaving sellers with no buyers. Which is kind of scary for folks who love video games and kind of hard to take in for those who are attempting to invest in retro games. Well, when we ask if we’re in a retro video game bubble, the answer is very likely dependent on the game itself and the condition of the game. Loose cartridges, CIB games and games that are new but not graded are all right now showing minor inflation due to higher demand during 2020 and 2021 lockdowns for older games, especially in the Gamecube market. Collectors may have to pay a premium…
To save you time, if you define a scam to mean that you give someone money for a service and they do not do that service, then by all means WATA and VGA (Video Game Authority) are not scams. They’re legitimate companies that, if you ship your games to them, will grade your games and send them back based on what services you paid for. Maybe not very quickly, but they do what they promise to do. Now, is video game grading in of itself a scam? A fictional system designed to inflate the prices of retro video games that are becoming more scarce due to the fragile materials used to construct their boxes? That’s a deeper question with some actually quite odd answers. Furthermore, should you invest in graded games? That’s an even tougher question. We will dive into all of them below. If you’re wanting to collect retro…
If you have fond memories of the good ‘ol days of games from bygone eras then you may want to consider buying games now instead of later, no matter which day you read this. The reason being that physical game media is becoming more rare by the day as games break, get thrown out and are lost to the fates of time. The prices of which are increasing, especially as older games which used cardboard for their cases begin to decay from moisture and age. The community and market for physical video games remained rather stable for a long period of time. Generally speaking, games were worth a percentage of their retail price based on popularity, with more popular games taking a smaller percentage of their retail on third party sites like eBay. For instance, a $49.99 game would likely sale for $35 on eBay used for the longest time,…
Steam Decks have just been announced and reservations will have opened up at 10AM July 16th. Assuming you have the chance to reserve one, depending on how much stock Valve has. You can reserve one on the following page at Steam and it comes in three models. A base model, a mid-tier model and a high end model. A quick rundown of the three: Base: 64GB of storage and a carrying case. $399Mid Tier: 256GB NVMe SSD (faster storage), the carrying case and a Steam Community Profile bundle. $529High End: 512GB NVMe SSD, anti-glare etched glass, the carrying case, the Steam Community profile bundle and an exclusive virtual keyboard theme. Note, there is a MicroSD slot for more storage. Great Overview If you want a solid professional unbiased overview of the hardware, checkout Gamer Nexus. History & Stock Shortages Valve has failed on almost every hardware release so far, with…
GameStop is the last vestige of brick and mortar electronic gaming stores. It is a business of acquisitions, claiming most other large competitors and merging them into the fold and is on every YouTube and blog’s “Top 10 Companies Soon to Pull a Blockbuster” for the last six months to a year or so. Are they right? Is GameStop about to go under? I honestly am not some kind of market wizard, I can’t say if their current plans will save them or not, but we can talk about what’s gotten them to this point, in context of video game sales (not the whole who bought who what when and where, lots of that is already out there). So this chart pretty much tells a very, very interesting story. The company went public in 2002 at around $10 USD a share. In 2002, we were still in the world of…