Month: December 2021

Boss Rush Banter: What’s Your Holiday Break Gaming Tradition?

While no one is promised a break during the holidays, certain phases of our lives tend to come packaged with time off for Christmas and New Year’s. As kids and young adults, school and university provide that, and with a little bit of luck and privilege, our duties as adults can at least afford us some time off on or around the end of December. From a young age, a lot of gamers will form bonds and associations with certain series, styles, or even entire eras as they wile away the vacation days diving into their game collections.

While I was growing up, my dad, brother, and I would always take in a couple of game rentals, or dedicate time to mastering a new title someone received as a Christmas gift. Over the years, certain holiday playthroughs stick out for me for their strong connection to family holiday gatherings: Turok

View original post 190 more words

My Gaming Year in Review (2021)

Eric Hagmann Music

Starting in about 2005, I decided to keep track of every video game I had ever beaten including the date and time of completion. I would even make notes about how the game was completed and added details like the difficulty level or percentage rates if applicable. I used my memory to recall games I had finished since starting college and went even further to try to list games that I had completed in my childhood. In total, I now have 188 beaten games on my list. It’s always fun for me to go back and see everything I’ve played throughout the years.

This year, due to a number of circumstances, I was not able to play too many games. However, I did manage to finish a few, and I’d love to share with you the six that made it onto my records for 2021!

Ecco the Dolphin 3D Remaster

View original post 1,541 more words

Isometric Lair of the Xanathar

Dyson's Dodecahedron

Isometric Lair of the Xanathar
Isometric Lair of the Xanathar

In the summer of 2017 I was working away on the ultimate secret project for me… Drawing the maps for Waterdeep Dragon Heist, my first commission for Wizards of the Coast and the first time my work would appear in an official D&D adventure. Fast forward to 2021 and there are nine adventure books and a few other products now out with the official D&D logo on the front and my work inside them. One of the coolest bits of this was designing the lair of the Xanathar – the beholder crime boss of Waterdeep.

In fact, I still have the original pencils I submitted to WotC here:

Original Pencils of the Xanathar’s Lair (c) Wizards of the Coast

Today’s post takes the final version of that map (which is slightly different than the pencil roughs) and switches the orientation to isometric. Since the map…

View original post 102 more words

After Holidays, Nintendo Switch Shortage in 2022 is Likely

On December 27th, Kyoto NP reported that Shuntaro Furukawa, the President of Nintendo, informed the public that Switch production may slow down during the early months of 2022. Even though the popular console was able to maintain a steady supply in 2021 while Sony and Microsoft struggled to get their current gen consoles on the market, the global semiconductor shortage still has impacted Nintendo. This may make finding a Switch more difficult, at least in the immediate future.

Furukawa’s statement backs up Nintendo’s revised sales forecast for the Switch to 24 million units–down from 25.5 million. Do not worry for Nintendo though as they anticipate growth in software sales (200 million versus the original 10 million estimate).

Have you purchased a Switch yet? Do you think this will turn the tides for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S sales? Let us know in the Boss Rush Discord channel.

Source

View original post 4 more words

Games Completed 2021

Retro Arcadia

We did this last year so now it’s a tradition… How about another self-indulgent review of games I’ve played and completed in 2021? I know no-one else cares, but it’s kind of like a diary, and I’ve already written it, and I’ve got nowhere else to stick it!

January

Resident Evil 4 was the last game I hadn’t played in the series and turned out to be not only my favourite Resident Evil, but an outrageous imposter into my very, very longstanding top three games of all time! Its predecessor-successor turned out to be pretty cool too. Boss rush aside, the last of the classic Castlevanias I hadn’t beaten looked, sounded and played great, as did a brand new Dizzy – what a stunner! Always time for a few old favourites too, although I then started the third Spyro remaster and just couldn’t face any more of the same!

9…

View original post 1,967 more words

Best Small/Independent Game

Gamer Crash

Missed any of the previous awards? Catch up here!

The awards keep rolling along! This time, we’re looking at the best smaller or independent game.

Gamer Crash Awards

As always, there are just a ton, many of which I wasn’t able to get to. It Takes Two picked up a ton of awards this year, including Game of the Year at The Game Awards, though you won’t find it on my list as I haven’t played it. Inscryption is another one that has had strong word of mouth and while it looks really interesting, that’s another one I just haven’t had a chance to check out. Still, there are some worthy names below!

So, without further adieu, here are the nominees:

Hot Wheels Unleashed – Milestone
Growing up, I had a ton of Hot Wheels and could play for hours building my own tracks. Hot Wheels Unleashed manages to…

View original post 872 more words

10 Underrated Indie Games on PlayStation

NODE Gamers

The PlayStation is home to some amazing indie games; the likes of A Plague Tale: Innocence, Gris, Moss, and Stardew Valley, just to name a few. However, there are plenty of overlooked indie games from a variety of genres that offer a fun, challenging, and fulfilling experience.

The list below names only a few of these games.

10. Silver Chains

Silver Chains is a first-person horror game with a strong emphasis on story and exploration. Search for clues within an old abandoned manor to unravel the truth about the terrible events which have happened.

9. Papa’s Quiz

Papa’s Quiz isa party game for 1-8 players. Use phones or tablets as controllers and compete in multiple question types, where the smartest and fastest player will be the last standing victor! Quiz! We crafted over 3000 original questions in 185 categories for this game. Dress up!

8. Pumpkin Jack

Pumpkin…

View original post 433 more words

Dragon’s Bend Game Report 12

Grumpy Wizard

My notes were a little sparse and my memory foggy since this session was a week and half ago. This one will be short and is probably not complete or 100% correct. I’m working overtime at the day job this week and don’t have much writing time.

Atticus, Cullen, and Ozrick accompanied by 2 draug warriors, Clancy the body slave, and Sam the birdman

  • The party returns to the hypogeum via the northwest entrance.
  • They explore a few side paths they didn’t take in their previous trip.
  • There is evidence of a secret door that had been used by the giant shadow bear thing.
  • The party finds the secret door and follows it to a side path. 10′ down the passage there is a pile of armor and a sword rusted nearly to powder. The party avoids it and explores onward.
  • They come to a chamber with a statue of…

View original post 238 more words

D&D RULES CYCLOPEDIA (1991): Original Dungeons & Dragons Complete in One Book

Wayne's Books

Mentzer / BECMI Dungeons & Dragons ran the gamut from Basic Rules all the way to the Immortals set. It was to be the final iteration of the classic D&D rules. One issue at the game table was that the rules were spread out over 9 rulebooks. The Dungeons & Dragons Rules Cyclopedia filled the need for all the rules under one cover (Well, not the Immortals rules…)

The Cyclopedia was not aimed at beginners, but instead a reference volume for Dungeon Masters. It is comprehensive, covering 1st level characters all the way through the high level endgame. The Cyclopedia makes a fine resource for folks playing any edition of D&D who want to “Old School” their game.

Rules Cyclopedia

1991 … Aaron Allston … 304 pages (hardcover) … TSR 1071 … ISBN 1560760850

Check Wayne’s Books Inventory

eBay|DriveThruRPG

The Cyclopedia became a collectible long ago. Careful with…

View original post 247 more words