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.

If you develop games for Steam, browser games, console, or mobile games, there is one question that surely came to your mind. This question is about localization and languages. If you want to make more sales by reaching more gamers, you naturally need localization to more cultures. Before the start, every developer thinks about the ROI of the localization in the target language. The more languages you have, the more is the profit. This article will help you to set priority to localization languages, define goals, and move towards the better game quality and massive downloads number. Let’s go!

Languages to Localize Into 

• Asian languages

If you are a mobile game developer, Chinese is your top language of concern. Why? According to statistics, the Chinese mobile game market has more than 283 million users, who bring the total market value of more than $7 billion. Thus, game localization into this language will be a success, especially if you deal with the broad market of mobile games. As for the other types of games, Chinese also has significant market share and presents an emerging market that you should consider. The other two giants are Japanese and South Korean, which both have their domestic game markets. On the one hand, it is easy winning an audience that is ready to buy new games. On the other hand, they may refuse to play if the game is poorly localized, or has not been localized at all.

A dream of many people is to enter the videogame localization industry. This sphere is famous for its creativity, talent-seeking contests, and competitive, stimulating environment. Although it may seem easy to translate a game, this does not mean to localize it. Localization implies such skills as diving into culture, searching for information, and of course, knowing your languages on the level of native speakers. Still, the beginner game localizers often wonder which languages are the most profitable to learn. It’s not a secret that they possess a different ROI, and there is various demand in them. So, which ones should you consider? Here are some suggestions.

Learn EFIGS

Do not fear this strange abbreviation. It merely stands for the five largest language markets that are English, French, Italian, German, and Spanish. Although the Italian market is not thriving today due to the economic downturn, there are others. Why learn them? Let’s take a look.

The game industry is truly global. Nowadays, it encompasses a variety of countries across the globe. Apart from the obvious English, there exist many options that you should consider to make your game successful. Game developers around the world often feel it difficult to decide what localization languages do they need to maximize their profits and make their product appeal to the broader audience. The Internet is full of advice, but choosing a localization may be a tricky one. The leading countries may vary depending on the industry segment. Let’s look at the top languages for game localization.

Top-3 languages

• French. This language opens doors to many profitable directions. The company that translates the product into French opens the doors to such countries as Belgium, Monaco, Switzerland, Canada, and many African countries. So, if you consider adding French to your translation list, do not hesitate. Many countries today widely use French, which allows you to include some of the most wealthy regions into your distribution list.
• Chinese. This language is tricky. Although it is incredibly popular in the Asian part of the globe, it demands attention and a special approach. For example, if you are a mobile game developer, you cannot distribute it on Google Play Store. You have to use Tencent or Amazon. However, this is not the only difficulty. You have to find TheWordPoint that can provide both Simplified Chinese and Traditional Chinese. The first is recommended to overall China purchases, while the second applies to Taiwan and Hong Kong. Despite the difficulties, this language is worth it. Chinese is the second-ranked language on Steam after Russian, which means its high popularity and buying prospects.
• Russian. When you translate into this language, you take hold of the audience of Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Ukraine. It sounds like a great deal. In many post-Soviet countries, this language is still a lingua franca. So, you have all the chances of winning a broad and loyal audience. A fun fact is that Russian gamers are often offended if the game is not localized to their native language. They even leave negative comments. Probably, this nation is extremely sensitive to the lack of translation. Excluding these people from your localization may seriously hurt profits.

Popular localization languages

Game hacking is a very old practice of editing and modifying the game in order to win, change the characters and rulers of the game or just simply to make the game more challenging to play. Game hacking is done by either simply changing the codes of the game or by adopting a software which will search and download available modification from the internet. Click here to learn more about game hacking.

Types of hacks available

Mobility hack is for professional players who are not afraid of getting a ban as they risk it from the very beginning. Mobility hack increases walking speed, so the player can teleport anywhere on the map in no time. These games are taken care of by game console and there is a minority of players that actually use it. On the other hand, there is a private hack. This hack can be custom made by a handy programmer. Since it is quite expensive to get this hack made, it is not very widespread. Contrary to the mobility hack, a private hack is difficult to detect.

Most hackers use the third type of hacks: pre-made programs which are easily easy to get for players for no cost. Tutorials and videos are widely available to teach the player how to download and install them.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it’s advised that everyone stays home or at the very least stays away from others. While this isn’t to judge you based on your decision to listen or not, there are options as to what you can do if you do choose to stay home. Either way, this will still apply regardless if there’s a scary virus on the loose or not.

There are many activities that you can participate in while staying at home, maybe you finally feel like cleaning that cluttered closet, or maybe you don’t. Maybe, you think to yourself, just maybe there’s something better to do than that. Games, that’s the answer. And not just any old game.

These old games are popular and still played frequently today by both old and young in age. So while you hide in your house from whatever may be lurking outside, you can be playing the following games: solitaire, jigsaw puzzles, sudoku, mahjong, and last but not least, crossword puzzles.  You can also check out word unscrambler.  

Solitaire

The first game you must try is solitaire. Solitaire is a game that can also be called Patience or card solitaire. In general, solitaire is a term used for single-player games of concentration and skill involving a set layout of a certain item, which could be tiles, cards, stones, etc. Which is why it makes sense that it can be called card solitaire.

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

The Pokémon franchise has been around since 1996 and has been producing best-selling games almost yearly since then. I started with the first generation of Red, Blue, and Yellow games. Ro Panuganti, who specializes in video game covers, takes tunes from the Red and Blue games and puts a heavy metal spin on them. The end result is a nine-track digital album that provides over twenty-five minutes of heart pumping music to catch Pokémon to!

It’s been years since I’ve played Pokémon Red/Blue, but I still recognized the first tune, Pokémon Master, right off the bat. It’s the theme song, electrified! The second track named Viridian is the Viridian City music overhauled. The guitar playing is fantastic! The third track, Wild Encounter, has some nice sound effects and really spruces up the wild Pokémon battle music. Pokémon Hospital begins with a lot of background noises including chatter and ER machinery before revealing a soothing remake of the Pokémon Center music. The Mt. Moon track is true to the source material and keeps the sense of danger and the thrill of exploration. The sixth track, Cerulean, takes the upbeat city music and jazzes it up a bit. I wonder how many people would recognize it if it was set as hold music?

The seventh track, Lavender, is the longest track at nearly five and a half minutes long. I must say I like this version much better than the original game’s town music. The mysterious mansion music is the eighth track dubbed Mansion. Again, this rendition improves upon the original in my opinion. The final track, Gym Battle, is a souped up version of the iconic Gym Battle music.

Thank you Paramount for sending us a digital screener to review!

There have been many movies adapted after popular video game franchises. Sadly, most of them are not very good. This film had a rocky start after fans heavily criticized Paramount’s original design of the blue blur. Sonic’s final appearance looks much closer to Sega’s design with the exception of his arms being blue instead of cream colored.

Sonic is voiced by Ben Schwartz and he does a great job with bringing out the attitude that gamers have grown to love. While Sonic is often cocky, there’s a lot of loneliness shown as he must remain hidden from humans while living on Earth. In the fictional town of Green Hills, Montana, Sonic watches many residents of this small community without being detected (for the most part).

When Sonic lets his emotions get the better of him, he causes a mass loss of power and the government calls upon Dr. Robotnik to discover the source. Jim Carrey’s portrayal of Eggman is quite funny and he provides a lot of humor in this film as expected.

Those who enjoy playing video games know how easy it is to get fully absorbed into a game. A quick 10-minute play session can quickly turn into hours of gameplay.

It wasn’t all that long ago that enjoying a video game meant going to purchase it from the store and having full access to the game. However, in modern gaming, features such as paying to have to recharge or paying for special items are common.

To some people, having to pay to continue playing a game might seem like a minor inconvenience. However, for other players, the need to pay to continue playing a game becomes a compulsive impulse. This impulse is actually a form of addictive behavior. Many game developers are aware of this addictive behavior and are using it to increase their revenue.

Play-to-Win and Loot Boxes

Most games have the same basic mechanics, no matter the genre: to complete a series of tasks and unlock harder objectives. However, now that many games can connect to the internet, developers have realized that players will pay real money to complete an objective more quickly.

Most of the time, this payment happens in one of two ways. One is known as the “Play-to-Win” method, where players will pay to skip the objective or pay to unlock a new area. The other method is known as “Loot Boxes”, where players pay to receive a mystery “box” of virtual items that will enhance their gameplay.

With many considering the aim assist for gamepad users being a disadvantage, Epic Games is removing the legacy controls on March 13th.  In it's current state, gamepad users are able to track users through obstructions like smoke and walls.  Players with legacy controls currently enabled will have their controls set back to default settings.  Until the change happens, players who wish to preserve their settings may use the "Copy from Legacy" option and then manually disable the "Legacy Look Controls".

Check out Fortnite Items Available From PlayerAuctions.com

A video game is interactive digital entertainment that you “play” via a computer, a game console (like the Xbox or PlayStation) or phone or tablet. 

The reason why video games are awesome, and extremely popular among all age groups is that people are trying to escape the real world and prefer to live in the virtual world.

There could be many reasons why video gaming will take over but according to me, they can be summarised in seven points.

People find it easy to find a community within the gaming world.

Technology has been a boon for some people while it is a curse for the others.

People find it easier to join a community in gaming worlds and make friends or even compete with one another rather than dealing with the real people.

Introduction

Since the 80s brought home entertainment systems into millions of households, video games have taken a strong position on the market ushering new jobs, products, and ideas. It didn’t take long for organized competitive gaming (esports) to appear, with numerous tournaments attracting gamers from all over the world.

However, are esports valuable only to video game marketers and console manufacturers, or is there a deeper value? In this article, we are going to go through some of the benefits that competitive gaming holds for education.

Improved cognitive function

Doctor Peter Gray, in his article on cognitive benefits of video games, shows evidence that video games improve our spatial attention, memory, and multitasking abilities. All of these skills represent a significant set of personality traits that allow us to learn faster, adopt new ideas, and extend our ability to focus during class, manage multiple tasks simultaneously, or create a reasonable schedule.

So if you’re still coping with these cognitive functions, try pursuing a professional gaming career. You might not reach the top but you’ll fix those issues that stopped you from getting your college degree.

Scholarship programs

In the US, alone, there are more than 450 institutions of higher education that provide esport programs with full scholarships for students interested in pursuing this career. What this means is that we could expect, soon enough, many aspiring gamers signing up at a college much like basketball and football students do. It's general knowledge that most students get through their college only thanks to their athletic endeavor, while they’re provided with a reliable assignment guide to help them with their homework, essays, and other academic challenges that they might face.

Smart and young CS players are well aware of the benefits of gaming. They’re not afraid to believe in their chance of making it big, so they’re often sacrificing the rest of their daily activities in order to become successful counter-strike players.

Regardless of your age, playing a complex video game like CS should never make you feel that you’re wasting your time. If your friends and parents judge you, they’re doing so because they don’t understand the value that we can extract through such experiences.

However, regardless of your age, you should never allow video games to make your life worse and stop your personal and professional growth.

When it comes to college students, there are many individuals who are sabotaging their future without even being conscious. Failing in college is not something you want to happen, especially if you’re committed to grow and become a responsible adult, and you cannot allow computer games to put you in that position.

Gaming is a billion-dollar industry these days, and it’s not hard to understand why. One of the best things you can do to capitalize on this is to try to make the most of the gaming experience. Video games are no longer a solo activity for people in their bedrooms to enjoy. They are becoming more and more mainstream, as well as evolving into sociable events. 

This is why it is so important to make sure you focus on improving your approach to gaming and trying to get the best possible outcome. There are a lot of factors to keep in mind here, and trying to enhance your gaming experience in 2020 is so important. Make sure you look at what it takes to improve and enhance your gaming experience this year and here are a few great ideas that can help you.

Get a Gaming Chair

A gaming chair, in many ways, is seen as the pinnacle of the gaming experience. You need to do as much as possible to improve the process of gaming, and a chair is going to provide you with excellent comfort, as well as helping you to play in a more immersive way. This is something you are going to need to work on improving, and it can help you in a big way when it comes to having a better gaming experience. 

Here’s our 2019 Christmas buying guide!  Below are our favorite gadgets and family appropriate titles we have played throughout the year.  More reviews can be found on ChristCenteredGamer.com! Each game is given a gameplay score for the overall gaming experience and a moral score for how suitable it is for younger gamers.   The Amazon and Humble Store links will benefit Christ Centered Gamer by giving us a small % of the sale.

Projection is one of the best inventions in the technology era and short throw projector the most exciting breakthrough in projection technology. With more advanced lenses and lighting sources, they are not only useful in movies and office presentations but also good for gaming.

Due to more improvement in technology, today's models are highly-advanced and provide high-quality resolution and brightness. And most importantly, they are affordable. However, people facing difficulty when planning to buy the best short throw projector as so many options are available in the market. To assist you in making the right decision and selection, we have compiled a detailed guide that will lead you to get the best possible short-throw projector to enhance your gaming experience.

Benefits of Using Short Throw Projector

• Easy to install: Installation and integration are usually affordable and flexible when using a short throw projector. They are designed in such a way that you can either mount the projection unit on a wall or install it onto the ceiling.
• Great for small spaces: You can enjoy a home cinema experience in the smallest of space with short throw projectors. They are capable to eliminate the clutters such as people walking in front of the projection image, and focus on optimizing the overall watching experience during movies or presentations.
• Advance technology: Nowadays, most of the projectors are equipped with advanced features in terms of picture quality, contrast ratio, and lamp life. With these features, you can drastically improve the way you conduct your presentations.
• Better gaming experience: Previously, projectors were rarely used in gaming because they were too long in size and had fewer features. But the latest model of short-throw projectors come with a clear LCD or DLP technology with a variety of modes, such as gaming mode.

Buying Guide for the Perfect Short Throw Projector for Gaming