But I realized today that sometime in the past few weeks, I’ve somehow fallen back into the habit of writing like an annoying, blowhard pundit. Seemingly half the stuff I’ve written at USgamer recently basically amounts to a string of tarted-up blog entries, the kind of stuff I posted regularly in my 1UP blog. I don’t know if it’s a coincidence, but in the same period of time I’ve also gotten back into the habit of exercising (which I fell out of when I began preparing for my relocation) and shaken off the mental fog that’s been hovering over me (which began around the time I relocated).
- What’s so hard about hard games? Inspired by Bob Mackey’s Dark Souls II review – though in no way a criticism of the review or Bob’s perspective – I free-associated for a bit about why it’s so difficult to find hard games that also are good games.
- WFC and the new impermanence of gaming: I recently realized I’m never going to be able to play Dragon Quest IX again the way god intended, and that bums me out.
- Final Fantasy X | X-2 HD review: Kind of a review. Mostly an anecdote about game music.
- The two Snakes: I can always find an excuse to write about Metal Gear.
- Rule Gridiania: I didn’t expect to like Final Fantasy XIV nearly as much as I do.
- The living City: I’m lukewarm on Thief, but I do think the City in which it’s set is kind of excellent. Maybe because it feels like sneaking through Ankh-Morpork, minus the clever satire.
I’ve been bugging the tech team to add blogging tools to USgamer, but in hindsight maybe it’s not necessary after all. I’ll just abuse more legitimate content wrappers.
I don’t follow many other gaming websites because they’re too busy with updates, and I miss absorbing gaming info once a month with a magazine.
USgamer kind of has that magazine feel Even if its a game I’m not interested in, the articles on USgamer you and other staffers have written have enough substance in them to be relevant to me that are worth reading. So please keep up the blog style posting!
Really enjoyed the hard games article. We’ve all fell victim to egregious difficulty spikes over the years, my most hated one being the airplane Tyrant boss fight from Code: Veronica. Unless you’ve played it before, there’s a 95% chance you will not have enough ammo or health items to win. In which case, it’s a wonderful restart from the beginning for you! Unless you have multiple saves of course, but that wasn’t really an option on the Dreamcast’s VMU.
I’ve been wondering how you sustain such a prolific output of articles, for both USGamer and your site(s). Now I see that exercise is the key! I should probably get back into doing that myself.
It definitely helps. I have trouble focusing on writing when I feel the twinge of depression tugging at my brain, and exercise is a natural source of endorphins. I genuinely write better when I’m physically active.