HokieBriz walks you through the events of a day in Appalachia.

I rank the title menus of 7 Bethesda RPGs including Morrowind, Oblivion, Fallout 3, New Vegas, Skyrim, Fallout 4, and Fallout 76.

Welcome to the 2nd Annual Brizzy Awards, where the categories are made up, and the points don't matter! This is where I highlight some of my favorite things from the year in gaming, so settle in and let's see if your tastes are as good as mine!

Having missed much of the scheduled beta sessions for dumb reasons like "family", "vacations to Disney World", and "parental responsibilities", I finally got to play the Fallout 76 B.E.T.A. this weekend. With about 5 hours under my belt, I managed to explore a little, finish a handful of quests, and team up with a stranger so I feel like I've experienced enough of the game to give some initial impressions.

Excited to receive Holy Diver (NES) from Castlemaniagames.com, Trav gets inside to see what all comes with the collector's edition and pops it in for a quick play.

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Jake hits Nashville, TN and Greensboro, NC up for some more vinyls to add to his growing collection. Be sure to check out the links below of all the artists featured here! Listen to these bands!

Jake heads south to Asheville, NC and tracks down a few vinyls for his record collection. These artists span the spectrum of ear candy from hip-hop to folk to metal.

This Christmas, I finally got a chance to experience The Void's "hyper reality" attraction at Disney Springs in Orlando. Hyper reality is their term for how they match your physical surroundings to your virtual environment, allowing you to touch virtual objects like walls and benches. I had been dying to try this since I first heard of The Void, and the fact that they opened up shop at Disney a couple weeks before Christmas was perfect since my family was going there for the holidays. You might say it was... destiny (Snoke face). Read on to learn all about it!

2017 was a year of great games, and although I couldn't play them all, I still wanted to take a look back at what I felt were the best games of the year. So this is the first annual Brizzy Awards; where I give sweet virtual Brizzies to games based on categories I make up to highlight things I liked. There's absolutely no voting, or Twitch participation. It's all about me, Briz, hence the name. If that sounds alright with you, read on!

With May the 4th earlier this month, and recent teasers for Episode IX, I've had Star Wars on the mind recently. Okay, who'm I kidding. I pretty much have Star Wars on my mind at all times. I've got something with Star Wars on it in pretty much every room of my house, and my office at work. 

Coming clean here: I am a poser.  I parade around like a big time gamer who grew up playing and beating tons of NES classic titles.  In reality though, it didn’t happen that way.  My folks got me a Nintendo when I was five years old in Christmas of 1990.  I had no idea what it was or what it did.  I didn’t even really like it.  I much preferred making car noises with my mouth and pushing Matchbox cars around on a rug.

There are more books than anything.  Tons of books.  Books have existed for centuries.  Ancient texts and scriptures are still being unearthed and there is no way they can all be read in a lifetime no matter how much heroine laced cocaine flavored coffee one consumes, it’s not getting done.  Extremist religious entities even burned a good bunch of them for us and THERE ARE STILL SO MANY STUPID BOOKS.  The good news is, you wouldn’t want to read them all.  Lots of books are garbage.  I’d even go as far as saying most books are garbage.  You really want to read Dr. Spencer Johnson’s “Who Moved My Cheese?” or Chopra’s “The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success”?  Nah, you don’t.  I mean the cheese one sounds interesting at least.  I like cheese.

If game developers were spirit animals, Bethesda Game Studios would be mine. Since I discovered Morrowind in 2002, I've collectively spent more time playing their games than all other games combined. Okay, that is probably an exaggeration, but not by much.
 
Now, I'd never say that Bethesda's games are perfect. We all know that the fidelity of the character models tends to lag behind those of other games.

Last night, Nintendo gave us the first full look at their new console, Nintendo Switch, and for a self-proclaimed “dormant Nintendo fan”, I have some thoughts on the messaging, games and system itself. Let’s dig in. 

Grand Theft Auto Online (GTAO) is basically a simulation of real life where you get to break the rules without consequences, and that makes it the perfect blueprint for creating an engaging VR metaverse.

SPOILER WARNING: This post spoils major parts of The Walking Dead: Season 1! If you haven't played it, don't read this post until you do.

In nearly every game, the death of your character is just a mechanic that conveys failure. Pac-man, Mario, Sonic, Solid Snake, Master Chief, Marcus Fenix; almost any character you can think of. They all die numerous times

In Part 1, I discussed death caused by the player, and how some games try to make pulling the trigger feel like the grave, powerful and irreversible act it is. In this part, I'll be looking at the death of characters friendly to the player, and how these moments can illicit an emotional reaction in the player.

Death occurs in almost every video game that isn't a sports or puzzle game. Pac-man is unmade by the touch of a ghost. Mario is eaten by an angry plant. These aren't gruesome deaths, but they are death nonetheless. Death in video games is rarely the heart-crushing affair it is in real life

The main quest vs side quest dilemma is something that I've encountered while playing games like Mass Effect, The Elder Scrolls, and most recently, Fallout 4.  The dilemma arises because of the level of immersion and freedom these games offer, but at the same time, it can tear away at that sense of immersion which the developers worked so hard to create.  Is it a necessary evil, or are there ways to get around it?