A Self-Proclaimed Dreamer

      Well, another year has nearly come and gone, which means that Game Awards speculation season is upon us yet again. I am always happy to think about all of the great games that have come out every year, even though I don't super care about the awards themselves. If nothing else, we get a lot of interesting game announcements here, and last year, we even got the announcement of Bayonetta Origins: Cereza and the Lost Demon there, so maybe Nintendo will announce something else interesting this year! Without further ado, let's launch into a discussion here about what did and didn't get nominated for this pretty great year of gaming. Another celebration of the industry!     I'm going to get to the big awards right away, the first being Game of the Year, of course. Alan Wake 2 , Baldur's Gate 3 , Marvel's Spider-Man 2 , Resident Evil 4 Remake , Super Mario Bros. Wonder , and The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom are all of the games nominated for the top awa...

     Hey friends, a few weeks ago, we got Marvel's Spider-Man 2 , actually on the same day as Super Mario Bros. Wonder , but it's taken me a bit longer than the other release to get through it. For one, it's a much slower paced game, less constant forward movement than Mario, but also just a lot of side content in the city. Just like the previous games in the series, I really wanted to take all the time that I could just swinging around New York like only a spider (or spiders) can and helping people out. For that reason, it has taken me a little while to get all of my thoughts together and actually put them down here, but I've gotten the platinum trophy now (meaning that I have done basically everything in the game), and I'm happy to report that this game is fantastic. Before I get any farther, this game is just as good as the first one, and maybe even more so. That goes for the gameplay, the story, and even the side quests. I was genuinely surprised by some of the ...

 Hey friends! I know I've written about Genshin Impact at some point, so you probably already know just how much I've played that game with friends, so I was excited when I heard about a new game from them that is a turn based RPG! I normally am not crazy about RPGs, but recently there have been quite a few to catch my attention, including Sea of Stars , and of course the Super Mario RPG and Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door remakes that are coming up pretty soon, so I've been in more of a mood for them than I usually am. I should also note that I am typically not a big fan of "Free to play" or "Gacha" games, that rely heavily on microtransactions to maximize profits, but this game, Honkai: Star Rail, is actually a lot of fun, and I've really enjoyed it so far. Today, I invite you all to hop aboard the Astral Express and we'll talk about the wonders of the universe in this new game from Hoyoverse. Before I begin, I should tell you that I...

     Hey there, friends! I know we're technically not in the spooky months anymore, but if there's anything that the Twilight craze taught me some years ago, it's that vampires are not just constrained to one month. They could potentially be celebrated year round, as they should be with the "Castlevania" animated series on Netflix. For those not in the know, Castlevania is a video game franchise that revolves around the Belmont family, which is a family of Vampire hunters. The Netflix series of the same name had 4 seasons and followed the adventures of Trevor Belmont, protagonist of the game Castlevania III: Dracula's Revenge . "Castlevania Nocturne," which just came out at the end of September is about Richter Belmont, who is the protagonist in the game Castlevania: Rondo of Blood , or as it was called in the Sega Genesis version, Castlevania:   Dracula X. More excitingly for many people, however, is that Richter is also present for the most popul...