I.

It all started when I was 7 or 8. We got a nintendo 64. This was my dad, dipping his toe into the water of console gaming. Of course he and mom played the n64 a lot. It quickly became dominated by me. I played it after school. I played it with my friends. I played the n64 while my parents were busy changing oil at their new bizness they owned. I played it while my babysitters were over. 

The n64 in a sense kind of consumed most of my time. I literally could not cultivate much of a social life or get productive with school. Don’t take this a mistake though. Just a cautionary tale. In the middle of owning the n64, we proceeded to buy an xbox. That was supposed to be for my dad, and of course quickly, it became I that dominated the console. 

If you’re keeping track now that’s two home consoles. I probably spent 1/3 more additional time gaming than I had before. I played star fox 64 and frequently derped around with PGR ( project gothem racing ). 

There was a day at work when I was bored, as I normally was at our oil change bidness. I happened upon a certain drawer. In this drawer contained the items of thousands of little knick knacks customers had accidentally left behind in the lobby. 

Lo and behold, my eye caught a glimmer a strange almost ghostly glowing little rectangle. The GameBoy!! I religiously played the crap out of that thing. Then the sad day came; the owners wanted their gameboy back. Awe mom, I fell in love, can you please get me one?

II.

My parents were pretty poor. They just wanted to make me happy. I really liked to play video games, it was a big part of my life. So I got it. Maybe this wasn’t the right thing though? I played the crap out of the gameboy, I even had a little lamp attached to it so I could play it in the car on those long road trips when your car lights are too dim. 

After that followed the PS2. Of course we HAD to have it. It had a DVD player! And all those wonderful exclusives! Spyro, Ratchet, and on and on and blah blah blah. You get the fever man! You gotta have that experience you know all your friends are enjoying. So what became as cool excuse for a DVD player led to another purchase of a home console for which I already didn’t have a lot of time for

3 consoles. 1 exclusive.

Next Christmas I purchased the gamecube. Super Mario Sunshine was all the rage. I don’t think I completed it. The only games I really enjoyed on the gamecube was Pikmin. Probably 400 dollars spent and 160 hours on a few games that I barely remember now.. 

I’m not trying to be a debby downer here. I love games and I think they’re important or I wouldn’t be writing about them on a game website. But here’s the deal, if you stretch yourself so thin for so long, and always rabidly like a rabies infested monster devour every game and every system like your life depended on it, you can easily burn yoself out. 

III. 

Every season of my life, each major step I took, each mistake I made… I always had the 3 major home consoles to console me (heh that was clever). But in retrospect, I probably depended on them way to much for happiness. I actually let them control me. Christmas 2006 came. Xbox 360, thanks dad! I probs spent well over 10,000 hours on the 360. Oh yeah, and I bought myself a DS, and another Christmas I got the PS3. Ew, I was so freaking spoiled lo. 

3500 on the PC.. maybe 3000 hours on the Xbox one.. 500 on the PS4, 300 on the PSVITA, 250 on the 3DS. ARGGGGGGGHHHhhh. I just ask myself, why didn’t I moderate myself? Why didn’t my parents stop me before I consume myself? 

If I had to go back and do it again, could I have lived my life any differently? No probably not. Try as I might, there’s that “magical” effect games have that draw you in. They don’t really let go easily. 

I’m in college now pursing computer science, I switched from previous major piano performance. I think deep in my hearts of hearts, I knew I could never get away. One my of burning primary passions in life was to become a video game composer and game maker. I am currently on track to graduate in spring 2018 with my degree and some Game Maker Studio chops. Everything in my entire life has prepared me and encouraged me to go forward with this dream, but as I’ve said. There’s this strange sadness within me that I somehow.. I missed out on so much while I was having fun. Having fun playin games, sitting in front of a Tv, letting it consume me. Would I change my entire backstory if I could, like some sort of twisted dark souls rage quit restart? Eh. 

Epilogue 

In the end. I must accept this is the only way to be happy, is to live without regret and press on. I cannot leave gaming, she was my first fine lass i ever did love. Even if I’m a weird geeky backwards guy with a dream ^^ ‘}

Hey Everyone. I just launched a new Kickstarter. It's an e-book about how to build the perfect PC.

It's geared toward console gamers who are looking for an easy guide to learn PC building. I think the readers here on gameinformer will love it!

If you're interested you can back us here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1971209711/how-to-build-the-perfect-pc

You can also check out our Facebook, YouTube, and website.

https://www.howtobuildcomputer.com/ 

https://www.facebook.com/howtobuildth...

https://youtu.be/-HTxwdlfSv8

We'll be giving away Guacamelee! Super Turbo Championship edition today! All you have to do is check out our Kickstarter here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1971209711/how-to-build-the-perfect-pc

Any new backer from gameinformer will be selected randomly to win. Since there are only a little bit over ten backers already, I think this makes your chances to win pretty good. Good luck! 

24 days ago I had a dream. 

But even before that, the momentum was building towards this.

Months before I had an urge to put out an ebook of some kind and switch career tracks to knowledge based work. I longed to do something more meaningful with my life, and achieve something special. Even before that, I had a strong desire to work in the gaming or computer field. My second week of my Junior year in college, I landed a job at a computer store where I get to help people build gaming PC's. Check. I started thinking a lot about how to use my newfound job to build new skills, new goals, new connections.

I ended up returning to the idea of writing a book. I wanted something that would last forever, something I could be proud of, and at the same time help other people. So I decided to write a book on "How to Build the Perfect PC"

My Fiance and I were struggling with fiance's. I thought the book might be a nice way to bring in some extra money. I knew I wanted to write a book, but I didn't know how to make money off of it. Months before I wanted to start a kickstarter to raise funds for an amazing game idea I had. Things didn't work out, I got really busy, and life ruined my plans. When I came back to college, I was still hungry to delve into a creative project.

I realized kickstarter would be the perfect avenue to raise money for a book. I built a nice looking website (howtobuildcomputer.com), a facebook page, an attractive campaign, and started ramping up game givaways. It was extremely difficult to manage it all, and still be able to have time to actually write my book. Thankfully I had my future wife and her bestfriend (marketing majors) that were more than willing to help.

It's the last week of our kickstarter now. It's hard to believe it's already been 23 days since we hit the launch button. I had high expectations. I envisioned people from all around the world, throwing money at me to give them this book. I thought the book would speak for itself, and gamers would naturally be drawn to it. I was wrong. In the end, my friends, my closest acquaintances, and my family members were the ones who donated. I forgot, that in real life, the success that you have will never come from strangers. 

It's the people that you've built lasting relationships for years that will actually give you opportunities, successes, or support. Sure later on, the masses will come to support you after it's already been made popular. I didn't have that luxury. No one knew my name, no one cared whether or not I knew how to build cool computers. The only people that mattered were my family members. I have 1 week left to go, with 80% of the project funded of my $1000 dollar goal. It's satisfying that I'm on track to reach my original goal.

But it wasn't without sacrifices. I spent hours and hours every night posting on random facebook groups and forums. I spent many sleepless nights worrying whether or not enough money would come in to fund my dreams. I prayed a lot in bed, that God would send a miracle my way. He did, but not in the way I would think. Yesterday my grandparents called and told me they couldn't make it to my wedding. I was sad of course, I had grown up with them my whole life. Due to health reasons, they couldn't make it. But my grandma added, since we can't come down there, we'll take the money we would have spent on traveling and help you fund your project. 

I was extremely grateful for how kind and sweet that was, but I almost felt like a criminal. I didn't feel worthy enough to take money from family, people that don't even care about building computers. But in the end, if they want to help I certainly can't deny them that joy if they find joy in giving. This has changed me as a person. I no longer think as much about what I'm getting for my money, but how my money will help people feel like they mean something. 

I hope you as a gamer, can use your money this way too. Whether it be through kickstarter, indie gogo, gofundme, or whatever, just make sure the reason you give, is because you care about the person, not the project. 

If you'd like to help me reach my goal, here is the link: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1971209711/how-to-build-the-perfect-pc

But remember. Even if no one on gameinformer remembers who I am, what I stand for, or what I've done, I will always have family that will care enough to step in, and take care of me. And same goes for you!

We often debate why each console deserves our exclusivity based off of specs, games, and online infrastructure. I refute these arguments.

When I buy a console, it comes down to one decision I must make, how comfortable does the controller feel? The controller is the greatest overlooked piece of hardware of all gaming. It's ability to either get in the way, or become an elegant solution to playing games is the ultimate deal breaker for me.

I remember thinking the gamecube controller gave me hand cramps, so I consequently purchased only 3rd party Xbox games. How does your preference of controller influence your purchasing decisions? What is your favorite controller of all time? Submit your thoughts in the comments below! If any of you own a Switch, I'd like to get a good opinion of that controller as well. 

Do you love Stardew Valley? Do you also love lists! Well folks, have we got a show for you; below you'll find quality farming advice your dead Grampa would teach you, only we keep our teeth in!

• Stardo 

Go mining immediately. Not only is mining extremely important to upgrading your equipment early, you can also make quite a bit of surplus cash early in the game to reinvest in seeds.

• Stardon't

Refrain from fishing too much early in game. It might seem like a good idea, but the fishing mechanic gets very boring quickly, and the rewards/benefits from fishing are puny comparing to mining and farming

• Stardo

Romance the villagers. One of my favorite experiences in the game was finding all the gifts that Haley liked and showering her with my undying creepy love. I grew on her eventually! Like a tapeworm! 

• Stardon't

Please for the love of God, don't try to play it risky in the mines. If you lose all your health deep inside the mines, you risk loosing your memory and progress (I.E losing possibly over an hour of your time) of grinding in the mines. If I could change one thing about the game, it would be the heavy penalty for dying.

• Stardo

Make sure you plant crops in a grid. Later on in the game, you will craft sprinklers to water the plants every morning automatically. SO. Create crop grids by tilling 3X3 (three horizontal, three vertical) and leave the center-most square empty. This will make your life in the valley much less toilsome

• Stardon't

Play the game for long periods of time. Stardew Valley is a massive game. There is so much to see, do, and accomplish, you will be tempted to stay up every night till 3 AM grinding away. There's no need for that. Your enjoyment will dramatically increase if you play the game the way it was intended to be played: Nice and steady wins the race. 

Pretty soon, you'll have a thriving farm, multiple wives, majestic horses, and land a plenty!

If you have any further questions, leave them in the comment box below.

Have a great Starry Day!

(Please visit the site to view this media)

Check out the link to listen to my performance of relaxing Undertale tunes

I was looking at my vast and super filled to the brim steam library today and noticed that a majority of the games I have in my library I will never play. I don't know if anyone out there does this or not, but I would like to exchange some steam keys with members of the community

Here is my link! If any of you want to post your own link to steam trade offers, feel free to do so in the comments. Is there a good third party website for trading steam keys? If so, please let me know because I would love to find that out. I've been using kinguin a lot but it is a website for buying and selling rather than trading. 

https://steamcommunity.com/tradeoffer/new/?partner=108374011&token=FgPYL85X

Do you ever have those moments when you play so many games it all starts to feel the same?

The feeling you had when you first started gaming was probably special. Yea, even magical, like a perfect day you'll remember for the rest of your life. I remember when gaming used to be as simple as just trying to have some fun. I played games because they made me really happy. There was no deeper meaning behind why I loved video games so much, I just fell in love with them and video games became a natural extension of my personality. 

These days I play games because I'm bored and I want to do find something to do that's meaningful. I used to play games because I was interested in the story, and how fun the mechanics were to learn. Now I play because it's a social experience. I don't have very many friends in the real world. Most of my daily human interactions is spent chatting or talking to people online. 

The joy I used to get from simply being able to have enough money to own or borrow a console has been replaced by my obsessive desire to max out my performance through a high powered gaming PC. The few games that I did have for my Nintendo 64 were all well loved, and played to each of their completion. The games now in my Steam library have been barely touched. A few here and there have 100 hours logged into them. of the some odd 160 games I own (all of which are really good) I don't have enough time to play. I kind of just sift through the massive pile of games and kind of squint in an apathetic mood till I finally decide I'll just play more player unknowns battlegrounds. 

The feeling of gratefulness to video games, their soundtracks, and to the developers have been lost. Now I expect a fully functional game or I will complain online. 

I live alone. When I grew up, all my friends used to come over (or I would walk to their house) to play games. They've all moved on now to better things. College, jobs, families. I still play for hours a day. I'm getting married soon, but even my new wife will only play very casually. 

I work at a computer store and Starbucks to make enough money to pay rent. When I get home every day, I turn on my gaming PC and start playing. I don't play anymore because I can't wait to be amazed, I play because it's a luxary, and there is nothing better to do. I used to go outside when my eyes got tired of playing. Now there is no where to go. I walk around the neighborhood, but only for a little bit. I don't lived by a lake anymore, I live in the city in a small cramped apartment. Even if I could travel, I don't have the money or the time or people to go with. 

Sometimes I think to myself at night, dammit, why the hell do I feel like this. I miss how it used to be :/

I managed to pick up my rift plus touch used locally for what I thought was a really good deal. And it was, 450$ USD. Two weeks later, Oculus lowered the price on its rift plus touch bundle effectively effing me over of the chance to make a quick buck on ebay-ing my Rift after I was done playing it.

I imagine a lot of readers on this site or people interested in video games and tech finally bought the Rift at the reduced price of 400 USD. You might be on the fence about the whole VR scene. My hopes is that this review will bring clarity to people on the fence, and maybe those who already own an oculus can resonate with my opinion

UNOBOXING

When I unpackaged my used rift, I was still pretty blown away by the presentation of the device itself, and the box that it was contained inside. It reminded me a lot of when I bought the iPhone 5 the day it was made available in my area. With any of my high tech purchases, I expect steely matte black, sleek industrial design choices, and sturdy build quality. The Oculus manages to check all those boxes, and if it had to recommend it based on sex appeal it would garner a definite 9/10.

COMFORT

Putting on the headset for the first time feels intuitive. The system never felt too tight on my head, but yet it never felt like it was jiggling around during tense gameplay. I did have a few issues with getting the image to appear clear/not blurry, as the headset must be positioned in such a way that your eyes look into the glass straight on. The headset is lightweight but it did feel heavy on my head after around an hour of play.

What really gets the high marks here are the included touch controllers. My oh my, not since the OG Xbox 360 controller have I ever felt like a controller has been as user friendly and natural as the Rift’s. When I say the touch controllers fit like a glove, I’m being quite literal. I tell all my friends this when they first slide their hands into the wands and it instantly clicks with them. Rift +1

COMFORT NO NO’s

The location of the pause/menu buttons are disorientating though, I would have liked if they were easier to reach or more clearly marked. On the subject of disorientation, multiple times I had to peek through the bottom of my headset to adjust something on my computer, such as launching a game, adjusting the sensors, making sure the audio was coming through to my rift earphones, or other really annoying first world problem issues. 

There’s often no clear way to do this from within the oculus app or steam VR’s home page. BAD BAD BAD. Don’t make me constantly take my headset off, and then put it back on only to find I forgot to adjust something on the computer. Also, the design decision to not include a general search function for games or apps inside the headset’s interface is another annoyance. Do you really expect me to sift through 10+ pages of poorly categorized apps to find what I really wanted to buy or look at? It’s 2017, time to put on the big boy pants and software engineer in a search box.

GAMES

Out of all the VR headsets out on the market, Oculus now positions itself as being the most affordable, (or at least tied with PS VR), and the most diverse in terms of game library. Of my favorites, I can easily recommend Raw Data, Tilt Brush, and The Lab. The Lab (a free title by the way) won over most of my friends because of Longbow, a mini game where you shoot stick-people and defend a castle. It’s funny how the simplest game in the world is widely regarded one of the best games for VR. 

I remember the first time I tried Tilt-brush at a friend’s house. It’s one of those games that make you say holy balls out loud because of how cool it is. Drawing and painting in 3D is a truly unique and mind blowing experience, and I encourage everyone who owns a VR system to try Tilt-brush.

I had a few similar moments with Batman Arkham VR. In the final moments of the game, things get really psychedelic and warps reality in a way I’ve never seen before. Batman was probably one of the most novel experiences I’ve ever had, shotgunning you with a handful of creative ideas, then abruptly ending at a total playtime of about 1 and half hours. 

In fact, almost every VR game I played on Oculus contains kernels of greatness, but fall short due to a lack of truly engaging deep content. Another such game is The Brookhaven Experiment. What starts out as one of the funnest wave shooter’s I’ve ever played ends once again, abruptly and left me wanting more. This is an on rails stationary zombie shooter, and boy is it a blast.

The gunplay is tight in Brookhaven, and I truly felt fully immersed in the world. My best friend Alex played the game and screamed at the top of his lungs when a raging zombie burst through a window close to his face. That level of realism is definitely a fun adrenaline rush, but again, the fundamental problem with Brookhaven is the problem with every other game on the market right now, they’re basically mini-games marketed and priced as full AAA titles. Even the Oculus “Summer Sale” was downright disappointing, you won’t find any deals hear. Expect to pay 10+ dollars (most games are around 29.99) for 3ish hour experiences.

Oh, and don’t forget to build a PC powerful enough to run the machine. Expect to shell out over $1000 to meet Rift’s recommended specs. 

https://support.oculus.com/help/oculus/170128916778795/

Which leads me to finally wrapping up my thoughts on Oculus as a whole. You can basely summarize my thoughts as this. “An intriguing piece of tech that needs more time to mature.” At this stage, it’s downright hard to recommend a product that lacks a killer app. It’s not that I didn’t wholeheartedly enjoy any time spent in Oculus, but it did lack that certain “hook” aspect that I find in my favorite traditional titles. 

Don’t get me wrong, VR is the real deal. This is NOT Kinect 2.0, and it’s not some pie in the sky concept. Motion tracking in general has come a long way, and it indeed does feel spot on now. My main concern with VR is that I can’t play over an hour without needing to take an hour break, or risk feeling like complete crap. I don’t suffer from any kind of motion sickness, but VR simply wears your mind and body out, and it is sometimes vary jarring if a frame does drop or the game crashes.

If you have $400 dollars sitting around, there are plenty of other things I would recommend you spend your hard earned cash on. If you really are curious and strongly desire to see what VR is all about, the Rift will wow your family and friends, if only as a strictly novel entertainment device. Disclaimer here, I've been gaming on a Gtx 1080 with 16GB of ram and a Ryzen 1700. If you want to see what kind of video cards perform best on VR, I pulled this chart from the computer hardware website Hardocp to help.

I hope you enjoyed this review, if you would like to, please leave a comment below and I promise to answer :)! I don't get paid for any of the blogs I write and it does take me an hour or two to write them, so sometimes it feels nice to get feedback from the amazing community members here. 

~Boo

It's rather funny when we make extreme choices like blowing up Fallout 3's Megaton and observing the consequences like some kind of god. When we're doing destroying the world, it's as easy as reloading a save to erase the choices you made.

In real life, it's not so easy to do that. Say one wrong thing or make a mistake at work and people WILL remember you for what you did and how it affected them. Likewise, some games don't let you "take back" choices. Games like Telltale's The Walking Dead force you to make life or death decisions on the fly, then see how they affect others across multiple seasons. 

Night in the Woods only lets you spend your day with certain characters, so if I were to choose to have a night out with Bae, I couldn't do something else with Gregg. I find it amazing how video games have evolved to the point that they're punishing players with opportunity cost, a high level concept which means that if you spend your limited resources doing one thing, you lose the opportunity to spend the resources on something else in the future.

Then we have games like Undertale, that totally bend reality in a way that makes you feel like the characters in the world, the game's save files, and you the player are all connected in same strange 4th wall breaking way. Undertale never broke the 4th wall though, it made this new perception of how a video game world and the player's world were connected. It looked so effortless and natural that I wasn't aware it was trying to be campy, or jokey, or video gamey, I just accepted that the game was intelligent enough to trick me into thinking that it was conscious of its own existence.

Essentially, do characters like Sans that carry the ability to travel through space and time have a soul?

At what point does a game behave in such a logical yet random pattern that it becomes just as real as a human? This isn't the first time I've had the sneaking suspicion that artificial intelligence, or a piece of software was "self aware." I realize this blog may be confusing, and that's okay. We are nearing a point in video games where they are getting increasingly complicated and multifaceted. I think to ignore such subjects and think of them as too heady or high minded is foolish. I enjoy talking about a game's base mechanics just as much as I do delving into the philosophical concepts behind the games themselves. 

What do you guys think? Is it possible for video games devs to spend so much time creating AI for their characters, that the actual characters themselves become extensions of the devs that created them? Or am I just crazy? Probably the latter, but... who knows.

I first started using Steam Spy as a tool to see how well Indie games were selling. It’s a novel idea, it's almost like discovering how great the internet is for the first time. A massive wealth of information to sift through, curate, and categorize. Steam Spy definitely scratches my OCD of digging into several numbers and making sense of what they actually mean.

Being a Computer Science major, I always fancied seeing numbers presented to give me an understanding of a situation much more than I did before. I think this is why so many people who are into tech and computers love to see benchmarks, it gives them a visual representation of how a particular piece of hardware is performing against its completion and previous iterations. In the same way, Steam Spy lets you compare sales, total playtime, amount of users, amount of views. Ultimately these numbers tell you how successful a game has been since its release.

I first used the service to track Undertale. It’s crazy how well that game sold for being on a such a tiny budget.

Current owners: 2,713,134

Guys. 2,713,134 multiplied by $5.00 is over 13 millions US dollars. If my general calculations are correct, Toby Fox is a multimillionaire. And what if I’m half wrong, 6 million? What if after Valve and his team members all take huge cuts from the profits and Toby only made a measly 76 cents off of every copy he sold? It doesn’t even matter, it still makes Toby Fox a multimillionaire. And that is why I love digging into Steam Spy.

Let’s analyze Eric Barone, creator of Stardew Valley

Current Owners: 2,948,282

Let’s say for Eric, Valve didn’t take any cuts, and income tax never existed in this alternate awesome reality. And lets say that Eric made $15 dollars off of every copy he sold. If this were true, he would be sitting on a fat pile of 44 MILLION dollars. That’s currently more than most starting NFL quarterbacks make in a year. IN FACT, Derrick Carr (the highest paid QB in the NFL) only made $23.9 million last season. When you put things into perspective, all I have to say is wow. Granted, Eric did work for 70 hours a week without a single paycheck. But still.

Next, let’s analyze a smaller game that came out a few years ago from the smaller indie team Vlambeer. 

Nuclear Throne's current ownership sits at 356,797. 

Not amazing, but still a big success for such a simple game made in Gamemaker Studio. If Vlambeer split their profits evenly 2 ways, and Valve take’s their standard 30% cut off of games sold on its digital storefront, this means Vlambeer grossed a total $2,800,000 (ish), and the two team members that worked on the game probably made a solid million each easily even if you take away the high income tax and whatever other fees and costs they had to pay out.

I wonder what these uber successful developers spend all this money on? I realize not all games are this big of successes, and most indie developers make an average of 30k, but sheesh. One could only dream right?

I thought up a lot of other titles I could have used while writing this blog. Titles like— 
“The death of brick and mortar” 
“The digital revolution is upon us”
“The dark age of physical rare collectibles”

With all of them being equally dramatic and silly, and me feeling the wit meter on empty, I decided to mearly allude to my disappointment and chronicle to you dear reader an epic tale of tourism. At the end of this article, you can decide for yourself if going to VideoGamesNewYork is worth the effort. 

I left New York that day with what my wife affectionately described as “throw up smelling pizza beard” and no video game loot. VideoGamesNewYork, I bid thee farewell 

Ever since I built a gaming pc I told myself I really cared about things like frame rates and cooling and high refresh rate monitors and higher resolution displays. I got a job at a computer store and learned literally everything there was to learn about computers and probably rebuilt my computer 3-4 times to be "better." After every bottleneck was removed, after all the money and all the time and al the tweaking was put in, I still today am not "satisfied" with its performance.

I think we as gamers focus way too much on specs. I remember the night the PS4 launched. I told myself I was not getting a PS4, I didn't need an Xbox One and a PS4. There was no reason in my mind to have both, and yet the superior technical specifications of the PS4 caused me to cave. I spent over 1000 dollars and bought both. To this day I couldn't really tell you which console actually looked better to the naked eye. If you compare Halo 5 and Forza Horizon 3 to Uncharted and Killzone Shadowfall, you can't fairly compare them because they are different games running off different engines with different art styles. 

Even if someone were to go out and scientifically test Call of Duty (insert title here) running off both consoles, I really honestly doubt it would make a difference. If one game was running on the PS4 at 5-8 frames higher. 

What the PC space did for me was mess with my OCD. The fussiness I once had with tech specs and chasing after numbers became an obsession instead of a hobby or love of tech. I started to care more about the graphical performance of the games themselves instead of just playing the damn games and enjoying them for what they are.

Don't get me wrong, I have a glorious PC I built myself. I even posted a picture to show you how cool it is. I customized and tweaked and overclocked and basically tricked the crap out of my gaming PC. I have a 4k monitor I run all my games on. I have a massive steam library. None of it matters much these days though. I spend a lot of time working and taking care of my new puppy and new marriage. I wish instead of spending so much time and money fooling around with a computer, I would have just kept my Xbox One, the thing I was most comfortable with and spent more time just gaming when the moments happen. 

And thus comes the dilemma I'm sure a lot of you have faced time and time again. How much money, time, and commitment do I want to invest in gaming before it becomes a problem and interferes with everyday life? To me, the PC scene scoffs at the console crowd because they are simpletons and have limited knowledge. I envy those days when all I had to do was sit in front of a TV and play the games in a highly controlled environment. I can't tell you how many times my PC has hard crashed and I had to play detective for days trying to figure out what's wrong. Console people don't have to worry about that (as much). 

Xbox or Sony or Nintendo has a controlled ecosystem. You buy their machine, and their games, at flat rates. The cost of getting into console gaming is relatively inexpensive and hassle free. 

The PC is the exact opposite. The parts you may order may be incompatible or not work well with one another. A part could fail. You have to sit in an uncomfortable desk. You can't do things like cuddle with your wife when you're playing on a mouse and keyboard. I can't get up in the middle of a PUBG match to take out the dog if I'm playing on PC. These sound like outlandish and ridiculous arguments. They are. All I'm saying here is that my PC is becoming an inconvenience, rather than a solution. The Xbox One and PS4 are little all in one solution boxes. It is an easy plug and play solution and it gets games into your hands quickly and hassle free. In fact I forget all about what I'm playing on when I load into a game. The PC on the other hand is multitasking beast. 

Just because I can open up 20 tabs and facebook and youtube at the same time I'm playing a game doesn't mean I want to, or even that I should. Just because you can spend 2000 dollars on a 1080ti custom loop Intel i7 8700k rig doesn't mean you should. It's overkill. And at some point I always cross the line and go whoring after the next big thing when I should be happy that I get to enjoy so many unique games. 

Lastly, let me remind you that you can easily find an xbox one or ps4 for around $125 USD. A computer with basic specs would run you at the very least around $600-800. This does not include accessories. I know not everyone will agree with me, and not every word I said in this blog really has a pointed reason behind it. I am expressing my frustration with a platform I love and will stick with for 5-10 years longer. But a platform I believe will fade if it is not made more user friendly, cost friendly, and accessible.

1. Coffee: The go to beverage for any gamer with a love for comfort and alertness. Coffee will also leave you with a sensation that you are sophisticated and smarter than your peers

2. Orange juice: If I'm going to be gaming in the morning, nothing quite does it like a sweet 8oz glass of cold orange juice to wake me up. Add mango for a flavor boost!

3. Bawls: I know what you're thinking and it's not that. Balws is an energy drink derived from guarana. Guarana is a popular beverage in Brazil, and it has a very fruity flavor. It just so happens to be the best tasting energy drink for all those late night Halo marathons.

4. Root Beer: If you like to be completely healthy and you want to sip on something with the most sugar, root beer (or cream soda) should be what you reach for. It's also good for birthday parties. And it doesn't make you drunk like regular beer.

5. Tea: Green tea or herbal, you pick. Drinking tea is relaxing and is a better alternative to coffee, although it doesn't taste quite as good. Try something strange like iced peach green tea if you are in the mood for something cold.

6. Cold water: Probably the most hydrating. Drink this if you sweat a lot and need refreshment.

7. Smoothies: Try to get the ones that have green apple, kale, or protein. It helps my generally cranky mood. Drinking healthy smoothies is a lot better alternative than eating sugary breakfast foods like donuts and cereal.

8. Dr. Pepper: I have grown out of the stage back when I thought soda was cool. It's not. But if you really must know, I used to drink DP by the bottle back when couch co-op was all the rage. It's Dehlicshous

9. Hot Chocolate. On those nights when you're home alone with Bae and you need to set the mood, hot chocolate is a no brainer. In the cold months I like to keep hot chocolate stocked up for when you can't feel your fingers after coming in from outside. Good beverage for story games!

10. Soupy ice cream: There's a reason this is the last one on the list. But don't count out soup ice cream just yet! Melted ice cream can cure a broken heart and soothe even the most severe of blowouts after an intense match.

And there ya have it folks, 10 great beverage for gaming! Let me know in the comments what your favorite beverage is and I'll do my best to respond!.

Don't let the title fool you, Doki Doki Literature Club is a must play this year.

I went into this game completely blind. It was a good choice, because my experience was chock full of emotional twists and turns. The game is a popular one for streamers, please take my warning and play the game yourself instead of watching it. Oh, and another a word to the wise, if you get scared or freaked out easily you may want to shy away from DDLC. With all that said, let us delve into the review. 

You start as a sort of regular Japanese 18 something year old in a generic japanese city. A peppy acoustic guitar and japanese pop soundtrack kicks in and you are greeted by your longtime childhood friend Sayori! The game has a bright and cheery mood, and I was quickly sucked into a well written (but aggressively flirty anime) visual novel. At this point you have probably decided this game has grabbed you by the nuts, or you will go running the other direction. However, for those of you who decide to play the game into the end the payoff is oh so handsome. 

For the next 2-2:30 hours the main characters are introduced and expanded upon. Each fits a stereotypical role. The shy dark haired and mature Yuri, the small feisty yet sweet Natuki, the best happy go lucky friend Sayori, and the clubs popular athletic president Monica. Most of the game revolves around reading the story as it is acted out. The main character is required to write poems (much to his objections) and discuss them each day with the literature club members. This is where the game's fantastic writing and grasp of deeper concepts starts to shine. 

Some of the poems written by the four literature club members are happy and standard high school freeform. Others tackle personal issues head on, such as the agony of being neglected by a father you look up to. If you pick the write words in a small mini game, you grow closer to the girl that you share the poem with. It's a weird system, and I felt like I was just shooting in the dark at first. Later after the game was over, I learned that the sketching of the girls hop in the air when you select the words they like. Oh well.

At some point I started speed reading through large walls of seamingly endless text and the game slogged down to a halt. Thankfully a few key story moments mix up the variety and got the game back on track. 

Then the twist happens and I screamed out loud WHAT THE CRAP.

I refuse to spoil any details about what horrible things occur after the twist. Like it or not, I was happy the game opted to stab the player deep into the stomach and twist the knife laughing like a heartless maniac. I literally felt a sickness deep in my stomach like something had gone terribly wrong. The fourth walls come crashing down (think oneshot, night in the woods, undertale), but the "let's blend the real world and virtual one" angle wasn't overdone, and it wasn't done in a confusing or annoying way, it was done the right way thankfully.

There are certain pieces of entertainment which I consider to be a work of art. The soundtrack, visuals, mood, and journey all culminate into something that is just plain special. Doki Doki managed to become much more than the sum of its parts, and I thought long and hard about the ending. It goes places I didn't expect, and it kept me fully engaged, what more could you want from a story game?

I have played the soundtrack 3-4 times all the way through on youtube and I still haven't gotten tired of it. Here's the best thing about this game. It is completely free. There are no barriers to entry, just download it and play it on steam. Four hours later you'll have a fantastic memorable experience. Just Monika? You'll understand soon.