Thank you Netflix for supplying us with complimentary access to review this series!

Level Up is the season finale that clocks in at thirty-seven minutes long. The main focus on this episode is DOOM and the impact it had with PC and online gaming. John Romero is interviewed and explains how he worked with John Carmack at Gamer’s Edge back in 1989. They soon joined forces and formed id Software in 1991. During that time, Nintendo was dominating the gaming market and the PC couldn’t match the graphical performance.

That is until John Carmack figured out how to master side scrolling and used John’s Romero’s Dangerous Dave character and inserted him into a Super Mario 3 like world and called the game “Dangerous Dave in Copyright Infringement”. They further revolutionized PC gaming with their 1992 first-person shooter hit, Wolfenstein 3D. This game was revolutionary in terms of graphics and gameplay. Their next goal was to implement online networking which they promised to deliver in their 1993 game, Doom. When this game launched on December 9th, the servers hosting the shareware (remember that?) file were crashing from being overloaded.

The PC gaming market wasn’t the only one getting a 3D overhaul. Dylan Cuthbert is featured in this episode and he figured out how to implement 3D graphics on a Gameboy. Instead of suing him, Nintendo flew him and his partner, Giles Goddard, to Japan to learn more. Together, they worked on the Super FX chips used in SNES cartridges to implement 3D graphics. Innovations like this made Star Fox a successful reality.

Thank you Netflix for supplying us with complimentary access to review this series!

Street Fighter was originally released in 1987 and the game was revolutionary in allowing two players to battle each other in real time. Other than that aspect, the game was pretty bare bones with only two playable characters. The sequel, which was released in 1991, upped the ante quite a bit by offering eight characters with one of them being female. It’s nice that they took female gamers into consideration by giving them a formidable fighting character.

Akira Yasuda, the artist behind most of the characters in Street Fighter II is interviewed along with Akira Nishitani, the game’s developer. It’s neat seeing the game’s inspiration being taken from various sights around the world and even from Japanese bathhouses.

Street Fighter did quite well in the arcades and it was only a matter a time before other companies like Midway offered some competition. John Tobias is also featured in this documentary and explains how he was heavily influenced by classic Kung-Fu movies like Bruce Lee’s Enter the Dragon. The fighters and their moves in Mortal Kombat definitely show their roots. This game also shows a lot of blood and gore, especially in the finishing moves. Games like Mortal Kombat Night Trap caused an uproar in the US government and brought about the formation of the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB), which is responsible for rating many popular console games today.

I was surprised that this documentary didn’t mention the SNES’s censoring of Mortal Kombat with green blood in Japan and sweat in the Western release. However, it does delve into the 1993 Street Fighter 2 world champion competition and interviews the winner, Takaharu Nakone. All in all, this is a fascinating episode and I highly recommend it for anyone who enjoys fighting games.

Thank you Netflix for supplying us with complimentary access to review this series!

In 2015 I read, enjoyed, and reviewed the book Console Wars by Blake J. Harris. This book talks about how Sega recruited Tom Kalinske to become the CEO of Sega of America. At the time, Sega had superior hardware, but Nintendo had the majority of the market share. This episode recaps this book quite nicely and goes over Tom’s five pronged attack in an attempt to de-throne Nintendo.

The first step was to lower the price to $149 to make the Sega Genesis more competitive, and the next step was to defeat Mario. Sega needed a loveable mascot and it’s neat how this episode introduces Sonic’s designer Hirokazu Yasuhara. The Sonic series took off and attracted gamers around the world for a competition in 1994. Chris Tang, the world champion in Sega’s Rock the Rock contest is featured in this episode.

The third part of Tom Kalinske’s plan was to add more sports. Sega and EA worked together to bring John Madden’s football game to the console and it did really well. Because of the system’s limitations all of the players had the same (light) skin color. Gordan Bellamy, who is openly gay, is featured and takes credit for making the default skin color darker in the 1995 edition of Madden Football.

Today not only teenagers but also many adults spend lots of time at their PCs playing video games. It has become a part of our daily routine because games help us to relax and have a good time with our friends and family. It is especially true for college students who always experience a lot of stress coming from numerous assignments and activities...

With so many games available online, it is so good to spend a nice evening in a company of your friends having fun and playing together.

Today not only teenagers but also many adults spend lots of time at their PCs playing video games. It has become a part of our daily routine because games help us to relax and have a good time with our friends and family. It is especially true for college students who always experience a lot of stress coming from numerous assignments and activities they need to handle unless they delegate some tasks to professional academic writers and services. Indeed, it is sometimes easier to order essay paper to buy yourself a few hours for more pleasant activities. Even though some young people prefer to play online games while sitting alone in their room, there are still interesting options you can share with company.

Top game recommendations to play with company 

How many times have you found yourself puzzled with the question Who can help me with my science homework? or Whom can I pay someone to do my homework?. College is always a lot of stress, and playing some video games after classes is just essential to relax and not burn out too soon. While online games connect us with people at a distance, there are many of them you can play in a company of friends sitting in one room and drinking a few beers. Interactive game nights are always fun and distract you from thinking about Who can write an essay for me? I need it for tomorrow,» concentrating on the process instead. If you plan to hang out with your friends soon, consider such options as:

1. Animal Crossing

If you love Nintendo, this game is for you. Here you can create a home and character, interact with cute animals, and engage in different activities from fishing to planting. It has no beginning or end which makes it perfect for playing in a company;

Thank you Netflix for supplying us with complimentary access to review this series!

Computer gaming began in the 70s with text-based role-playing games. There were no visuals and the user had to type in simple responses to play those games. Roberta Williams is interviewed in this episode and she was hooked on a text-based game called Colossal Cave Adventures that came out in 1976. The first computer game with graphics was her first foray into game design, Mystery House, which released in 1980. Roberta and her husband, Ken, founded Sierra Entertainment which produced many classic game series including Kings Quest, Police Quest, and Leisure Suit Larry. Sierra also published the first Half-Life game in 1998.

Richard Garriott is also featured in this episode and he’s known for creating the popular Ultima games that are heavily inspired by Dungeons and Dragons. Until watching this series, I had no idea that he became an astronaut in 2008. Because of the success of the Ultima games, computer gaming took off and Richard Garriott was able to self-fund his flight to the international space station.

As role-playing games increased in popularity, a company called SquareSoft started their Final Fantasy series in 1987. Yoshitaka Amano is interviewed and it’s fascinating to see how his intricate art was pixelated and simplified for the hardware limitations of that time period. His artwork is unaltered on the game boxes and in the manuals.

Thank you Netflix for supplying us with complimentary access to review this series!

The main focus of the second episode is Nintendo. The company was founded in 1889 and their focus back then was playing cards. 1985’s launch of the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) revitalized the video game market. Before sites like YouTube and GameFAQs, people relied on gameplay counselors to guide them through the thousands of NES games in the market. In this documentary, Shaun Bloom recalls his days as a gameplay counselor and what it took to become one. Getting paid to play videogames? Sounds like a dream job! With the growing video game library, it got harder to assist stuck gamers. Thankfully, the Nintendo Power magazine provided pointers and maps to ease the burden a little bit for the gameplay counselors and subscribers.

The 1984 lawsuit about Universal Studios suing Nintendo for the term “Kong” in Donkey Kong is discussed in detail by their lawyer, John Kirby. According to the credits, he passed away in 2019. After the case was won, Nintendo’s Shigeru Miyamoto paid homage to the lawyer by naming a popular character after him. Much of Nintendo’s success can be attributed to Shigeru Miyamoto, who played major roles in designing their most popular characters and games. Hirokazu Tanaka, the composer from Donkey Kong, is featured in this episode, and it’s neat to see how he came up with the various sound effects with the equipment he used back then.

The title of this episode, "Comeback Kid", is referring to the 1990 Nintendo World Champion, Jeff Hansen. When he originally tried to qualify, he got third place. His parents took him to the last contest where he took first place and eventually became the top player in his age group. The three games used in the competition were Super Mario Bros, Tetris, and Rad Racer. I wonder if his parents let him drive the Geo Metro he won for them when he turned 16?

In years gone by, playing games together was a common way for families to bond. Most of us have fond memories of three or even four generations sitting around the table and playing the classic board games. These days, gaming has a different meaning and most associate it with the solitary pursuits of teenagers in a virtual world of combat and survival.

Yet we all know that there is more to gaming than that. The events of 2020 have pushed social gaming right up the agenda, and that doesn’t just mean kids blowing each other to pieces playing Fortnite. In fact, to a certain extent, things are going full circle. Let’s take a look at some of the classics that can now be played as social games and are great for bringing the family together with their multi-generational appeal.

Skribbl

Pictionary has been a family favorite since it first appeared on the shelves in the mid 1980s. It’s a little like charades, but for people who don’t want to get out of their chair. This online version called Skribbl io is a fabulous little creation that will appeal to audiences of all ages. 

Like the board game on which it is based, it’s a way for the generations to come together and showcase their drawing skills, as well as their powers of ingenuity and lateral thinking. Best of all, it costs nothing to play it on your browser, simply head for the Gogy free games site, and look it up. Up to 12 players can play together in a private room, it couldn’t be easier. 

Thank you Netflix for supplying us with complimentary access to review this series!

High Score is a new video game documentary series offered exclusively on Netflix. The first episode titled Boom & Bust opens with Howard Scott Warshaw who created E.T. for Atari in five weeks. That game is known as one of the worst in history and 728,000 copies of it were dumped into a landfill in New Mexico. Before that disaster, this documentary begins with Space Invaders which launched in 1978. A couple of funny tidbits learned from this series is that the developer, Tomohiro Nishikado, cannot get past level 2 in his own game. Another fun fact is that this title was so popular in Japan’s arcades that it caused a shortage of 100 yen coins.

In the West, Space Invaders was quite popular and there were tournaments hosted in the United States. Rebecca Heineman is interviewed recalling her memories of winning the first championship in 1980. When she won the tournament, she was a guy and her dead name is William.

Other games featured include Missile Command and Pac-Man. It’s funny how Pac-Man was aimed at female gamers. According to the developer, Toru Iwantani, his design came from a pizza missing one slice. Ms. Pac-Man was enhanced by a bunch of college drop-outs who Atari sued (and later hired) for altering Missile Command to be more profitable for arcade owners.

Thank you Wood Entertainment for sending us a screener to review!

Skateboarding has been around since the 1950s and its popularity has had its ups and downs. Skate parks would come and go and when they disappeared, underground and street skating took off. Pretending I’m A Superman – The Tony Hawk Video Game Story features many professional skaters like Steve Caballero, Rodney Mullen, Chad Muska, and Eric Koston who share their experiences with this sport and various milestones before it became mainstream.

The popular Thrasher magazine started circulating in 1981, and the following year Tony Hawk became a pro skater. In 1986 Atari released 720°, a skateboarding game followed by California Games and Skate or Die in 1987. In 1989 the movie Gleaming the Cube was released. In the mid 90s skateboarding started to become popular and was showcased in the X Games, which was founded in 1994.

In 1997, Sega released a popular arcade game with a moving skateboard called Top Skater. Once Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater dropped in 1999, the sport would never be the same. Each new release would get better and when the fourth one came out, the other three were still in the top ten sales charts. Not only did this game revitalize the sport, but the skaters in the game became household names and the bands like Primus and Bad Religion got a whole new fan base. The inclusivity of minority and female skaters appealed to many people as well.

We’ve been streaming games often but irregularly for a while. We’ve met the requirements for Twitch Affiliation and are blessed with over 1133 followers and 7 subscribers as I’m writing this. We really appreciate those who drop by and chat with us on our streams and support our ministry, Thank you!

For the past few months, I’ve been a member of a steaming site that promotes various streams and encourages their members to watch streams from their community. It’s a give and take system. By using this service our viewership and membership grew but the community wasn’t very active. Not many of the members of this site speak English so they couldn't understand what I was saying or read the game's dialogue.

Upon reaching the streaming hours and viewership numbers, I was given the opportunity to apply for Twitch partnership. While waiting for the approval process I was trying to stream when I could guarantee I could get the viewer count high enough to maintain the requirements.

Twitch did not approve our partnership application, and rightfully so. Our community is lacking and I want to focus on that moving forward instead of viewer count. Additionally, I would like to involve our Twitch followers in choosing what games we play and stream. If we get enough subscribers, I would like to be able to purchase and stream community selected AAA titles that are not sent to us to review.  Here's the link to out Twitch channel.

Every single WOW player was a beginner when he/she started playing. However, as time passes, experience is higher and fewer mistakes are made.

When you are a beginner and you want to improve how well you play the game, you need to be aware of the mistakes you might make without even realizing it. By the time you reach a World Of Warcraft raid, you need to be ready. This is why you absolutely need to avoid the following very common WOW mistakes made by beginners.

Clicking

Excessive clicking is the number one sign that you are a beginner in WOW. This is because when the mouse is used to click the spells, reaction times are drastically reduced. You need to get used to utilizing keybindings. Map the spells to the keyboard or utilize a good MMO mouse. At first glance, this does not seem like much but you will quickly realize that you heal more and do more DPS.

Ignoring Game Mechanics

There are countless game mechanics in WOW that count. For instance, if you stay in the fire when you damage a boss, it becomes very difficult for the healer to help you. The entire raid can die and you would end up having to restart the entire fight. Educate yourself on important game mechanics so you know what has to be avoided before every single encounter.

Thank you Penny Arcade for sending us some nice gaming gear!

Penny Arcade has been around for a while and I am most familiar with their comics. They also have a huge forum, games, shows, podcasts, and a cool shop! We were recently sent some swag that we did an unboxing for.

Their featured item is the Animal Crossing New Horizons pin set. This $30 set of four pins includes Tom Nook, his two pupils Timmy and Tommy, KK Slider, and Isabella. If you’re a fan of this popular series, these 1.5” tall pins are super cute and sure to brighten your day!

The canvas WASD tote bag is pretty spacious at 20” wide, 15” tall, and 5” deep. The fabric handles seem pretty sturdy, but I’ll have to do some grocery store testing when they allow us to use environmentally friendly bags again. There’s a zippered pouch or extra inventory slot on the inside of this tote bag.

Riot Games is certainly on the mind of many FPS players. With Valorant released fairly recently, the company has seen a huge number of players connecting to their servers. Everyone wants to try out the new CS:GO and Overwatch destroyer. But before you jump into the thick of things, it is important to figure out which characters are worth your time.

Depending on your personality and playstyle, different agents can fulfill a completely new role. The design of these agents is extremely flawless, and it allows players to have a different experience depending on the character. In Valorant, there are Sentinels, Controllers, Initiators and Duelists. Valorant’s ranked system works similar to other Riot games, so a good strategy to improve and try out new agents is by buying Valorant accounts from trusted marketplaces like Eldorado.

Each of them are played quite differently, however, agents that fall into the same class can fulfill similar roles. Learning what each agent falls under will guarantee an easier time learning the ropes of Valorant.

Sage

In most video games, support characters are the afterthought during character selection. Nobody really clamors to fulfill that role. With Sage, however, things are completely different, and this character is undeniably fun to play. Sage has various orbs she can equip to control the flow of the game.

The gaming chair industry is booming, and it’s hard to wonder why. It’s not only about aesthetics. Of course, it’s great to have a cool gaming throne, but it’s only useful if it’s also highly comfortable and adjustable to help you feel at ease and maximize your speed and precision.

And who can know more about sitting comfortably than gamers?

Whether you’re a player, a professional or an amateur, or you simply want to buy the most comfortable chair available on the market, or the best budget gaming chair for the year, you have come to the right place.

How to Choose the Best Gaming Chair

Of course, it’s not possible to provide one universal answer. People differ among each other significantly; they have different features, needs, preferences, and issues to deal with, so one piece of furniture can’t be an answer to all possible problems and demands. Your final decision should be made after considering your lifestyle, liking, gaming style, health issues, and more, including, evidently, your budget.

Even the most comfortable chair needs to be adjustable. If you spend long hours sitting in one place, you will need to change your position freely and comfortably without sacrificing a healthy posture or gaming precision. A good chair will allow you to change the height, the position of the armrests, and the way it reclines. Many chairs also have detachable cushions, which may be a great asset.

At Christ Centered Gamer we get sent a lot of games to review and have an impressive backlog as a result. Some of them we ask for, but many games show up in our Inbox unexpectedly. We love working with indie developers to help them promote their otherwise overlooked labors of love. For the most part, we enjoy playing the games sent to us. According to our Steam Curator page the majority of our reviews are positive.

Every year, we release a Christmas Buying Guide, which highlights current games that are both fun and family-friendly. Quite frankly, this is not an easy task. It’s easy to find games that meet one criteria, but both takes some serious effort. Violence, language, sexual, and occult content are prevalent in many games. Those are usually the titles that get talked about the most at game shows. Other games can be played in front of children, your pastor, or grandparents without offending them. Sadly, those types of games are usually not very fun to begin with.

Before we implemented our dual score system, we used an average score which often propped up Christian and family-friendly games while overly chastising games that are Teen or Mature. While our current scoring system is not perfect, it does a pretty good job.

One of our recent reviews, Starclaw: Battle of StarSpace Nebula, scored well morally, but fell flat when it came down to the game/fun factor score. The developer did not take this review lightly and filed a copyright/slander case against us on Google. More on that later! As reviewers, we really do want to enjoy our time with games, but that’s not always the case. Even still, we try to find the positives and aim to offer constructive criticism for the developers to work with to improve their current and/or future games. If a game is patched, we’re willing to take another look at it to verify that the issues have been addressed and will add a blurb in the review. Per our Code of Ethics we will not remove negative reviews or alter them for financial gain.

Parents now have to keep their kids indoors to prevent them from contracting the COVID-19 virus. To defeat their boredom, parents must find ways to entertain young students. Luckily, these days, there are computer games that entertain the students while educating them. 

With some wonderful games, parents rest assured that their kids are learning something good in the safety of their homes.

1. Nancy Drew Interactive Mysteries

Nancy Drew Interactive Mysteries is a game that sharpens the skills in solving problems. It’s a point-and-click game where the player assumes the role of Nancy Drew, the mystery solver of the famous novel series. 

Thank you Materia Collective for sending us this album to review!

My husband and I are fans of the Final Fantasy games and music. We have attended multiple live orchestral performances and own several Distant World and Black Mages/Earthbound Papas CDs. When I played and beat Final Fantasy VII on PC, I swapped out many of the original game songs to the Black Mages versions. By doing so, I made a great game even better! Before going any further, I must admit that I have not played the remake. With many gamers playing the remake and enjoying its music, it only makes sense to release an enhanced version of the soundtrack. Roborob delivers a nice selection of songs from this epic game in One Beat Angel FFVII.

I enjoyed and reviewed Roborob’s Kingdom Hearts remake album, Kingdom Heartbeats. I recognized many of the tracks but it’s been a while since I played a Kingdom Hearts game so I’m not as familiar with the music from that series. Since I’m a fan of Roborob and Final Fantasy VII, I jumped at the change to review One Beat Angel. For the most part, I have no regrets. While this is an enjoyable 11-track album, I prefer the original and Black Mages versions over this.

Just like the Final Fantasy games, this album opens up with a spruced-up version of the prelude song which is quite fitting. The second track Fight On! Takes the iconic battle song to a new level. If you’ve won a battle in a Final Fantasy game, you’ll recognize the Victory Fanfare song. The Mako Reactor song is instantly recognizable even with the dubstep additions. Who Are You is also given an electronic dance music facelift in this album. With the album called One Beat Angel, it should come as no surprise that One-Winged Angel is overhauled as well. Aerith’s theme is probably my least favorite song on this albumn since it’s not recognizable until the very end. On the flipside, the peppy Chocobo Theme doesn’t stray too far from the original score. On That Day Five Years Ago brings the seriousness back with some nice beats. Roborob’s rendition of Cosmo Canyon is decent, but I have to give the nod to Pandoh’s dubstep version. The finale song, JENOVA does not disappoint and brings this entertaining album to a close.

Thank you Materia Collective for sending this digital album to review!

Deltarune Chapter 1 is a free spiritual successor to Undertale. Toby Fox has worked his magic again by producing a fun game with good humor and an excellent soundtrack. In turn, String Player Gamer did an awesome job sprucing up the soundtrack in a fourteen-song collection called Field of Hopes and Strings which is a play on Deltarune’s theme song, Field of Hopes and Dreams. Both Fields of Hopes and Strings and the original soundtrack are available on BandCamp.com for $7 each.

Fields of Hopes and Strings is about forty minutes in length and has a nice sampling of songs from the OST which contains forty tracks. Many of the omitted songs are less than thirty seconds long. The symphonic metal styling of the chosen songs is superb and fans of Toby Fox and Deltarune should give this album a listen.

Here’s a breakdown of the track list:

If you are reading this article, you may have already thought about the localization of your videogame. This is a critical step that opens broad opportunities and brings your game a new audience. Localization is not a mere translation of some of the game’s parts. It is a complex process that has multiple steps like the translation of code, cut scenes, dialogues, in-game text boxes, and many more. Many of us seek professional help to solve the tough localization questions. However, you need to know the basics of the process to cover all the essential translation points. Let us look at the crucial steps of game localization.

1. Decide on the budget.

If you are on a tight budget overall, or you are an indie developer, you may use the help of such free services like Google Translate or fan translation. In either case, you will need to edit and proofread your final result. Alternatively, if you are a major developer, you may find that professional translation companies have different prices. The price usually depends on the amount of work you need. They include plain translation, editing, proofreading, and quality checks via software. Each of them may add to the cost of localization.

2. Decide on the language.