In part 1 of this article, I discussed the outlier all-time bestsellers, games that stand alone in making the bestseller list by doing something unique: 

To grow and improve is a desire that most all of us share. Whether in video gaming, software development, or business in general. Yet, in order to grow and improve we must first be willing to acknowledge our areas of weakness;

Video games are one of the most important cultural developments of our time. The early 20^th century had film, radio, and TV. The late 20^th and early 21^st centuries have the internet, computers, and video games.

A new King’s Quest? Remastered Day of the Tentacle joining Grim Fandango as LucasArts games I can finally play again? And…an UNupdated Final Fantasy VII on PS4? One of these things is not like the other.

Spoiler warning: This post contains spoilers for The Last of Us (little ones), the Left Behind DLC for The Last of Us (big ones), and, well, 1987’s Metroid.

A lot of role-playing games (RPGs) new and old let you pick the sex of your character (male or female) before you start. Which is awesome. I’ve played Mass Effect with both Maleshep and Femshep characters and got two games’ worth of quality voice acting for the price of one. 

Spoiler note: This post contains plot spoilers about Borderlands and Borderlands 2 and, by default, spoilers about the characters in the upcoming Pre-Sequel who also appear in Borderlands 2. Spoiling Borderlands 1 for you might actually be doing you a favor, though. That ending’s terrible.

Social Sim: Check. Dungeon-Crawler: Check. Persona Does It All Both Absurdly and Well

            One of the most pleasant surprises of the end of the PS2’s life cycle were Atlus’s Persona 3 (2007) and Persona 4 (2008), both released in North America long after the next generation of consoles had come out.

With the release of Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel less than a month away, I’ve been thinking about my utter inability to stop playing Borderlands games and attend to more important things in my life like family, work, and feeding myself. I like shooters. 

Why I love gaming with Board Games

            A few weeks ago, E. Ortiz wrote an interesting article over at Big Blue Die (Which is no longer Live) is about why board games aren’t going to be killed off by video games, noting the emphasis on in-room socialization and tactile engagement with the game.

Spoiler Alert: This post contains spoilers about The Wolf Among Us and Season Two of The Walking Dead by Telltale Games (and implied spoilers about Season One).

Spoiler Alert: This post contains spoilers about Season One of Telltale’s The Walking Dead.

 In the last couple of years, interconnected games in which player actions in one game affect options or situations in another have started to pop up more frequently than usual.

As I discuss in a related post [here], escort missions are usually terrible, bringing otherwise fun games to a screeching halt with shoddy mechanics, annoying characters, and terrible AI.