Sunday, January 3, 2021

Quantum Leap - Crash Bandicoot 4: It's About Time - Part 3

Our adventures have proceeded apace and we've already found ourselves in possession of three of the four quantum masks. With one more left, our oldest enemy, Dr. Neo Cortex, has chosen to show himself.

Though our power has yet to reach its peak, we must nonetheless confront that would-be tyrant and stop his plans for world domination. Once he's taken care of, surely there will be no twists. No other threats will appear and space-time will be free to mend itself.

Right?

RIGHT!?

Tuesday, December 29, 2020

Non-2020 Gaming in 2020

I have been writing the Highlights and Disappointments features as annual projects since 2015, and for the past 2 or 3 years I have been grappling with a weakness of the format I’ve chosen: That I have only ever counted full retail releases that have occurred in the year of a given piece. Occasionally, I’ll fudge it with justifications like a new Yakuza or Ace Attorney game hooking me into the rest of the games in the franchise, but I’ve always stuck to that general rule.

And thus, I decided after writing up the pieces last year that I would do something more this time. Often, people who play the sheer volume of games that I do will go back to titles that came out in prior years, but either came out at a bad time or otherwise got lost in the shuffle at the time of release. Or maybe there was an update that added a cool new feature. Hell, maybe it just had a positive impact on us still after the discourse™ had settled down.

I wanted a space to talk about those games, and so I decided to create one. Here’s to the games that I played in 2020, but weren’t released in 2020.

Starting with:

Sunday, December 27, 2020

Quantum Leap - Crash Bandicoot 4: It's About Time - Part 2

Dr. Cortex and Dr. N Trophy are still ripping space-time apart as they work tirelessly to achieve their plans and enact revenge. With two of the quantum masks accounted for, and two more to acquire before we can mend the rifts, our journey continues.

It's About Time.

Thursday, December 17, 2020

In League with the Legends - Nox Ezreal

It's been some time since we've played some Constructed in Runeterra on stream, so I figured it would be good to dive back and play some of the newer decks that have been making the rounds since we last give it a whirl.

We seem to have picked a good time too. Since new champions have just been released into the wild, people will probably be experimenting with new decks and brews.

For now though, let's return with a new take on an old favorite: Ezreal, courtesy of Mobalytics.

Deck code: CECAOAIEAENR6JBGGQ5ACAQDBEBQCAYUFY3QCAYECEAQEAIDCYZQA

Tuesday, December 15, 2020

The Highlights and Disappointments of 2020

It’s that time once more, for us to reflect on the year and think about how we can do better in the year to come. Obviously, I don’t need to tell anyone reading this that 2020 hasn’t been great, but that doesn’t mean good games didn’t come out. Pickings are slightly slimmer than they would be in a normal year. And yet, what did come out was generally strong on its own merits.

As a reminder, just because a game doesn’t show up on this list doesn’t mean it’s bad. It’s possible that either I missed it or that it didn’t leave a strong enough impression on me to talk about. So without further ado, and presented in a random order, my highlights of 2020 are: