Talking Point #4: Future of Emulation
The current state of emulation has never been better. PCSX2 1.7 was a gift from the heavens, DuckStation was a welcome surprise, the Steam Deck is a retro beast, emulators on mobile are better than ever and even PS4 emulation is making healthy progress in recent times. What more could one ask? Well, maybe a few things. For starters, perhaps a less-hardware demanding PS3 emulation would be a good start. Although do keep in mind it’s been well-documented how tricky that would be, so keep...
An Ode To Deckard
Note: I've slightly altered some specific details about my life or kept things vague here and there to protect my privacy, but this story is otherwise true. My dad died when I was about 6 years old. That time, earlier, and soon after is mostly a blur to be honest. We moved, family drama happened, and I was just sort of observing the chaos, not understanding why everyone was upset. I had a roof over my head and food in my belly, but I wouldn't have called my life stable. I dealt with...
Power Instinct: Matrimelee: Making "goofy" your identity.
“Hey, man, you should give this game a try, it has Sai from Akatsuki Blitzkampf?” “Oh, yeah? Let’s see…” That was the exchange I had with a friend regarding this innocuous fighting game. It started as something small but quickly evolved into something truly magical. Accompany me on this small journey on Power Instinct Matrimelee, a fighting game like no other. INTRODUCTION Being weird is in its blood. Power Instinct Matrimelee is the fifth game in the Power Instinct series. Developed by...
Into The Online Seas -- Monkey Island & Me
As kids, we truly know no limits. We can spend entire days dreaming about the jobs that would one day (hopefully) put food on our tables and feed us, clinging on to amazing-sounding career paths with the kind of blind confidence that can only be attained in the age of the purest innocence. Of course, circumstances both within and beyond our control quickly dash most of those dreams, as our personal peaks and shifting interests close off some career paths and open others. And so, I find it...
A True Quest for True Love - 'King's Quest VI' Review
Have you ever had such an intense crush for that special someone that not even the happy ending of a long-running video game series can keep your mind off them? Prince Alexander sure has. This tale begins with our hero, the soft-spoken Prince Alexander of Daventry, lost in thought in his chambers. He is pining for the love of his life (whom he has previously interacted with for no more than exactly one minute), Princess Cassima of the Land of the Green Isles. When the poor prince is about...
Octopus Rants: BioWare; Part Deux
I recently unleashed my limiters and talked about great BioWare games (behold) in an effort to stop my vicious cycle of feeling bad about the state the company is in now. Originally I wanted to go over just about every game as I have in fact played them all, but I was trying to keep the article more light and casual than my usual output; plus, I can only unleash so much unhinged rant on an unsuspecting audience. Well, now you're probably ‘suspecting’ so I don't feel bad about it anymore. It...
Teenhood's Last Hurrah: Memories Of An Arcade Junkie & A Mallrat
Ever-since my dad dropped me in Kindergarten for the first time, I had wanted nothing more than to be done with school for good, to exit those hallways for the last time and move on to the next big chapter of my life. I had almost marked the days on my mental calendar, crossing out the months as the demands and the difficulty of my grades increased, hoping for it to be over with. But once the day actually came? When the bell really did ring for the final time and I was to exit the double...
Octopus Rants: BioWare; They Were Pretty Good, Eh?
BioWare used to be my favourite game company of all time, even above Capcom and Team Ninja. Their games have a record of combining fantastic lore and worldbuilding with memorable characters, settings and more than enough fanservice and meme potential. They were games with unparalleled player agency at the time, letting you do some truly depraved and/or awesome things. Unfortunately, I think most of you will know where I’m going with this if you noticed the ‘used to be’ part of that opening...
Talking Point #3: What Have You Played in 2025 So Far? January Edition!
With the first month of the year behind us, now is a great time to look back on what we’ve done in the year so far. With video games, of course! There’s no promises this’ll be done every month, as I’m unfortunately not made of free time (this is a blatant lie). To avoid potential redundancy, we’ll try to minimize games already brought up in previous articles and to keep things a little zesty, we’ll mention a few non-gaming related stuff too! After all, not all of us are folks who waste 16...