Words On Wednesday

Physical video game media has been a hot topic lately, and while I agree with the intent of the discussion, I don't think it matters as much as people want to suggest. While I mourn the bygone days of a SNES cartridge working 30 years into the future, the gaming industry has evolved in a way that does not operate in the same way as it did in years past. For the past few years, physical games have mostly given way to increasingly digital sales and gaming hardware has shifted to match. There has been fairly vocal outcry with each step in that direction, but with very little long term consequence. Sony released a "Digital Edition" of the PlayStation 5 without an optical drive in 2020 as an option to save money and play exclusively downloaded games. When Nintendo released the Switch 2, they also started creating some physical cartridges as "Game-Key Cards" that don't have any game data, they're just a physical license to download and play the digital game. ...

Seven months after the announcement of the new Steam hardware and barely still within the "early 2026" estimate, the Steam Machine has officially released and I got my hands on a Steam Controller. This was originally going to be a review of the Steam Controller as well, but I decided it would be better saved for a later post. I didn't want to rush through a review with a week or less using the controller, and there was enough content already before I even started on the controller itself. That's something you can look forward to later. When Valve announced the controller, I was excited about it. When they revealed the price, I had my concerns. The most expensive controller I've ever had (not counting absurdly overpriced Nintendo Switch 2 Joy-Cons) was the WaveBird Wireless GCN controller at $80. Paying $99 for a single PC controller felt particularly steep when I only paid $50 for the excellent 8Bitdo Ultimate Bluetooth controller. Plus, I could use it for both ...

“Golden Sun” and it's sequel "Golden Sun: The Lost Age" are a pair of JRPGs released on Nintendo Game Boy Advance in 2001 and 2002 respectively. Frequently featured in lists of the best RPGs and JRPGs of all time, clearly they're good games, but what makes them so special? Also, why would I cover BOTH in the same post? I'm putting these two games together because they're almost more like two halves of the same game. Not quite like Pokémon where it's the SAME story with slight variations between versions. Golden sun is effectively the part 1 to The Lost Age's part 2. Playing JUST Golden Sun would leave you with an incomplete story. I don't want to suggest that this reflects poorly on either game. On the contrary, I think it was kinda nice to be able to sink about 25 hours into the first game, then take a break before continuing on to the second game. A sort of built-in intermission, if you will. I often burn myself out if I bum rush through a singl...

After getting a Steam Deck and leaning more heavily into PC gaming, I've been really eager to see my Steam Replay for 2025 and get a more meta view on what I played this past year. While the Steam Replay doesn't span the entire calendar year (it registers everything you've played on Steam "between the first second of January 1 and the last second of December 14 (GMT)"), it covers enough of the year to get a good approximation. Plus, I didn't get my Steam Deck until April, so I was still mostly playing on my PlayStation 4 before then. I did play some games on Steam that would run on my Surface Pro 7, but the time after April is significantly more representative of all the games I played. In any case, this is the first year that Steam has taken the lion's share of my gaming time. The summary image that Steam provides for social media sharing is a good overview. I played 43 games (36 of which were new) across 1,652 sessions, earning 470 achievem...

With 2025 coming to a close, I wanted to look at the results for Game of the Year, specifically from Golden Joystick and The Game Awards. I watched both events, but I've included the lists of nominees and winners at the end for posterity.  In short, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 positively SWEPT the competition. It is the broke the record for the most wins at The Game Awards , a monumental achievement on its own. The team at Sandfall Interactive had to get their steps in, coming up on stage so frequently at both award shows. It was fairly accepted that Expedition 33 would win at least a few awards, including overall Game of the Year, but that level of success and accolades was frankly ridiculous. One of the more controversial awards that they received was Best Independent Game specifically from The Game Awards. Indie games have grown increasingly popular in recent years, and anyone with a good idea can build a successful game if they put in the effort and catch at least ...