Well, as you may already know, my dream since childhood was to make video games. And now that I'm studying to get a Bachelor's degree in Games at the University of Utah, I figured, maybe it's time to finally take the time to make my first official game. So, here's an announcement for it:

As a gamer, I'm always looking for new things to check out, explore, etc. E3 normally one of those events that pique that curiosity for me every year. There's always a presentation that just has that 'it' factor going for it, whether it's a game, or a console release, or maybe another console competitor altogether. This year, Google decided to make themselves known by unveiling a truly ambitious vision for the future of gaming with the Google Stadia reveal. Console-free, Cloud-based gaming isn't a new idea. Back in the day, a service called OnLive had essentially the same kind of dream; before Google even thought about stepping out into these cloud gaming streets, the folks at OnLive had the bright idea to stream games of all types for a subscription price. Of course, this was in the very infancy of cloud computing, so the dream of cloud gaming was still kind of like an unexplored country of sorts. OnLive's time in the spotlight was short-lived, as the company was eventually bought out by Sony entertainment, but their early foray into the promise of cloud gaming was a glimpse into a truly different direction for gaming. Fast forward to over a decade later. We're seeing a re-birth to the concept of truly console-free gaming (and some say the return of the spirit of OnLive) with Google's announcement of their ambitious vision for gaming with Google Stadia. Google had already been seriously exploring the idea of streaming and containing games within their cloud infrastructure with the beta program Google Stream prior to Stadia's introduction at E3. Check out the Connect E3 presentation below:

With E3 just around the corner, the hype train is arriving at the station as companies get ready to showcase the latest titles and tech which they hope will become the next big thing. This has inevitably induced a little bit of excitement in us all as we wonder just what it is that might be on our gaming horizons.

If you are a gamer, techy, nerd, or gamer techy nerd, you have heard about Google Stadia and Apple Arcade. Tons of critics and news outlets are stating that one, if not both, of these new gaming systems will revolutionize the gaming industry. That is a tall prediction, although not very far from the truth. So what do we know?

In case you're living under a rock, last week, Sega announced that they will be releasing the Sega Genesis Mini on September 19. It will include 40 games and it's ready to plug and play. Also, it will include the following:

Apple announced numerous new products in their event at the beginning of this week. (If you've got a new Apple TV, you can tune right in via the just-released Apple Events app). One of those products announced is, what could be, a disrupt to the industry — GAMING!

The Total War video game series by developer Creative Assembly has always had an issue of taking cool, but rare or suspect moments of history and making them gameplay features, whether it be the Pictish stealth catapults in Total War: Rome II, the ninja troops in Total War: Shogun 2, or the flaming pig units all the way back in Rome: Total War (of course, not mentioning the historical issues of the game series being called "Total War" when it has never once portrayed an era where total war existed, the concept having been invented during WWI, significantly later than even the latest entry in the Total War series). However, there has been one thing that the Total War series has always gotten right in their historical games: History is not about individuals. Despite this, something rubbed me the wrong way about their upcoming game, Total War: Three Kingdoms, and the way it portrays history. Three Kingdoms is putting a heavier emphasis on individual people from history than any installment before, bringing to mind the Total War: Warhammer games more so than the previous historical games. The problem is that Warhammer is a franchise that focuses on mythical storytelling, allowing individuals to be more influential than the masses, but this is not how the past happened. The past is a mess of factors that no one person could shift on their own. History is how we talk about or portray the past, and it needs to be as accurate as possible. As far as video games go, of course, accuracy is not a necessity. Getting deep into the details of history can often interfere with gameplay, and there’s no way to program every conceivable historical influence into a game, especially when we don’t know them all. However, the Total War series has existed for 19 years at the time of this writing, and they are only now adding this “great man” history to their game. Not only that, they have added a game mode that turns the great men into legends, allowing them to fight whole units on their own, soak up hundreds of attacks, and turn the tide of a battle by merely winning a duel, an uncommon practice in China during the period of the Three Kingdoms.

Anthem, one of the most anticipated games of 2019 since its initial showing at E3, is Bioware's next big release with EA backing them all the way. We are promised that there will be no big microtransactions, no pay to win mechanics, and the game is intended to last at least 10 years. With promises of huge expansion packs, an ever-expanding map, and hours of gameplay, what could possibly go wrong?

Recently, video games have seen the monolith that is the Battle Royale sub-genre rise to massive popularity and with this have come some variations on the tried and tested formulae.

Welcome, Kingdom Hearts fans!!

Welcome, Mortal Kombat fans!!