I’ve been a gamer since the days of Impossible Mission, Druid, Ghostbusters, Winter Games, and others on my Commodore 64. The Winter/Summer/California Games series was the first franchise I fell in love with, but there was one franchise that made me fall in love with an entire genre. That franchise turns 40 this year. We don’t know the exact date that first game came out, so we’re talking about it on January 1.
Category Archives: Games
Book Review – “Final Fantasy I II III: Memory of Heroes”
My favourite video game franchise has had numerous novel adaptations in the Japanese language, including a single book with adaptations of Final Fantasy, Final Fantasy II, and Final Fantasy III released to coincide with the 25th anniversary of the franchise in 2012. Eight years later, we finally get that collection in English.
“Dragon Quest IV: Chapters of the Chosen” – Video Game Review
I’m still working through the video game reviews our readers voted on. Today, the last 8 bit Dragon Quest game. Next up: Final Fantasy IV: The After Years.
Video Game Review – “Doctor Who: Legacy”
I know I promised that Final Fantasy: Tactics would be the subject of the next review. I don’t review games until I’ve played through them with a high level of completion, preferably 100%, and I am downright terrible at Final Fantasy: Tactics. Instead, with the release of Doctor Who: Infinity, I’ve gone back and played through the best “match 3” game I’ve ever played.
“Dragon Quest” – Video Game Review
Readers were polled asking which game I should review next, and this came out on top.
Next 7 video game reviews chosen
Last week, I asked for input about which game I should play to review next. The results are in: the next game is the original Dragon Quest in its mobile incarnation, originally released in North America as Dragon Warrior. Details on the voting methodologies and the next six games in sequence follows for those who are interested. All options listed were mobile games of the JRPG variety.
Pick Blaine’s next video game review
I enjoy gaming, but I don’t have a lot of time for console games these days. If I plan to review something, I’m more motivated to make the time to spend on it, so I’m opening up voting so our readers can decide what I will review next. I do most of my gaming on my iPad mini, and for this, I’m focused on the “buy once, own the whole thing, one player RPG” style of gaming. (I still play games like Final Fantasy: Record Keeper every day, but I want to review an entire game, so I want to stick to complete ones, and ones where I don’t miss out on something if I have to set it aside for a week.) The actual voting takes place here, and the weighting of the votes will be explained below.
“Final Fantasy Dimensions II” – Video Game Review
It’s been a while since my last video game review, because I don’t want to review incomplete games, I do most of my gaming on mobile these days, and so many mobile games drag out the stories and never actually wrap up. This one is different, so I thought I’d review it now that I’m finished it.
30 Years of Final Fantasy: A Podcast Retrospective
The first Final Fantasy game was released in Japan on December 18, 1987, and that was only the beginning. David Walker from the No Consoles For Old Men podcast on the Two True Freaks podcast network joins Blaine in the first official Bureau 42/Two True Freaks crossover to discuss this landmark video game franchise in this podcast.
A First Look at the Nintendo Switch
I know we’re not a gaming blog, per se, but I think most of us are gamers or at least are interested in new tech. The Switch, which rolls out in March, certainly seems to embrace both console and mobile gaming (including multiplayer mobile gaming). Will it succeed? We’ll see. The Wii certainly shook up the market, though it didn’t have a lot of staying power. Continue reading →