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Showing posts from January, 2021

The Classic FPS Retrospective: Wolfenstein 3D

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I adore classic first-person shooter games, or as some have called them in this day and age, "boomer shooters." Many of them were released before I was born, and yet over the years I've developed a fascination with them. To me, this era of FPS games demonstrated enormous shifts in gaming technology. At the time, 3D gaming was still a pipe dream and the most immersive a game could be were dungeon crawlers a la the dungeon sections of the Ultima games or the Might and Magic series. The idea of actually being there in the world and interacting with it without clunky interfaces was something else entirely. As the 90s progressed, the FPS genre became bigger and more ambitious, showcasing what was possible with the technology we had with the promise of something greater as technology evolved. This little series is something I've always wanted to do. I want to outline the rise of classic FPS games, see how they grew and how they changed with advancements in gaming engines. I

The Dragon Quest Series Part 3: Crystallization

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    Dragon Quest III is the game where the Dragon Quest series becomes undeniably good. While I enjoyed my time with the first game, it's incredibly bare-bones and dated and the second game was fine up until the final hours. Both games I could only recommend with caveats and even then only to those who like classic JRPGs or are hardcore Dragon Quest fans. Dragon Quest III meanwhile is a fantastic JRPG I can easily recommend to anyone. It builds upon the foundations of the previous games while also avoiding the balancing mistakes of the second game to create a wholly realized experience. Unlike the first two however, Dragon Quest III's remakes add a substantial amount that as far as I know wasn't there in the original release. Where the remakes of the first two added simple quality-of-life improvements like a vault to store items in, III's remakes add entirely new mechanics that can radically alter how you play. The Switch version also adds a mechanic that I'm certai