Adorable Photographs and Obscure References

This is the nerd-pastime doom spiral of one Thomas Wilde, nerd writer and aspiring troublemaker.

[humblewordsmith]

Silent Hill f review: My teen angst bullshit has a body count

A review of Silent Hill f, a new survival horror game from Konami and NeoBards.

I wrote down my thoughts on the new Silent Hill for my friends' new worker-owned gaming site.

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Game Night Double Feature: ‘Yars Rising’ Goes Up, ‘Just Crow Things’ Punches Down

A couple of weeks ago, I picked Yars Rising as one of my favorite games I’d played at this year’s PAX West. WayForward (River City…

A self-promotion: For the last few months, I've been covering indie games every Friday at Minus World, the non-fiction subsite of Hard Drive. This week, I covered Yars Rising while another writer checked out Just Crow Things. Other recent writeups include Hollowbody, Vampire Therapist, Conscript, and The Sacred Acorn. I'm trying to turn Minus World into a solid venue for indie-games coverage, so if that's what you're into, please feel free to stop by on Fridays for every new column.

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NYPD Wonders Why Spider-Man Never Wants to Hang Out Anymore

Representatives of the NYPD are concerned about their formerly friendly relationship with local vigilante Spider-Man.

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My first article for Hard Drive's main page is live.

"Wait, I Could've Brought An Uzi?": Rules Controversy Rocks Mortal Kombat Tournament

The legendary martial arts tournament has come under fire from agencies insisting Mortal Kombat doesn't have any actual rules.

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Review in progress: ‘Starfield’ takes the ‘Skyrim’ formula out into the universe

I’ve spent roughly 20 hours on Starfield at the time of this review, which is nowhere near enough to feel like I’ve got a proper handle on i

[humblewordsmith]

I managed to hit 10 games on this list, although I missed a few of my favorites. Trust me, Illbleed would get more respect if I'd had the chance.

We Played and Ranked EVERY SINGLE Dreamcast Game

We think by the end you’ll agree that it was an objectively better system than the Nintendo 64, and that Sonic could beat Mario in a fight.

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2023 is an ‘Evo Moment’ for the Entire Fighting Game Community

In 2023, all the stars have aligned for fighting games. We already got a new Street Fighter, there’s another Mortal Kombat arriving in Septe

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I'm back at IGN, this time showing off my yellow belt in Mortal Kombat lore minutia.

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‘My Friendly Neighborhood’ Review – Survival Horror Game About Killer Muppets Plays It Straight

My Friendly Neighborhood overcomes the sheer lunacy of its premise to create a game that’s varied, smart, and incredibly tense.

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System Shock (2023) Review: Welcome Back to Citadel, Insect

Does this remake of the original System Shock stand up to its sequel, or has it challenged a perfect, immortal machine?

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The Best Part of Redfall Is the Paranoia in Its Margins

I went into a random suburban house in Redfall and ended up in a crime scene. The house didn’t look like much, but the front door was unlocked, which I took as an implicit announcement there was something inside. Instead, the first thing I found was a smartphone on the kitchen table. The woman who lived here, Ramona, had been texting her sister about their plan to ambush their mom and stepfather. Upstairs, behind a locked door, I found the site where they’d done it, with a bloodstained tarp across the floor. Ramona had warned her sister that their stepfather […]

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Redfall Review: Permanent Midnight

Redfall's fun with friends, but there are a few problems with the formula.

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Dead Island 2 Review: To Live and Die in L.A.

If you'd buy a summer home in the zombpocalypse, Dead Island 2 is for you. For anyone else, it's more complicated than that.

I’ve got a lot of thoughts about this week’s new Dead Island 2, and have shared the more mainstream-friendly in my review.

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Dread Templar Is a 'Boomer Shooter' for Fans of Doom, Quake, and Soundtracks that Feel Like They're Attacking You

Looking for a new shooter to fill the Doom- or Quake-shaped hole in your heart? Check out Dread Templar, a boomer shooter by T19 Games.

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Dead Island 2 Interview: How Dambuster Revived the "Zompocalypse"

GTA vet and Dead Island 2 Creative Director James Worrall talks humor, horror, and how to destroy Los Angeles.

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The California Problem

greetings! this is a very long post about video games and capitalism. feel free to take breaks if you need them. make sure to stick around t...

i've often described the whole space to friends who don't follow games as "harboring both absolute genuine eccentric outsider freaks who cannot exist in another space due to being very marginalized and needing it as a form of expression... and also very conservative people who find other forms of culture too free-wheeling and open-minded for them and use games as a way to escape from a world that freaks them out."

And also:

in general, in broader culture it felt like games wanted more and more to be taken seriously as consequential art, but also didn't want to have the same scrutiny level applied to them as other art.

I’m having one of those moments where I’m glad someone else is having similar thoughts to my own, yet slightly annoyed that they’re having them more articulately.

[humblewordsmith]

The Fascinating Flaws of Resident Evil 6

If it weren’t a mainline entry in the Resident Evil franchise, we wouldn’t still be talking about 2012’s Resident Evil 6. It would hang out in the dive bar at the edge of town with other janky, forgotten action / adventure games of its generation like NeverDead. You’d only ever hear about RE6 from listicles with titles like “10 Quick-Time Events That Make You Want to Punch a Baby.” As it is, Resident Evil 6 occupies a strange niche. It’s one of Capcom’s all-time bestsellers but has some of the worst reviews in the Resident Evil series. Whenever someone writes […]

As God is my witness, I am once again back on my bullshit.