The Critical Corner

Another year has come and gone, and with it comes one of my favorite times of the year: Game of the Year.  2021 for games was certainly an interesting one. As the first full year after the launch of the new generation of consoles with the PlayStation 5 and the Xbox Series X/S, no one can make the argument 2021 is gonna be fondly remembered as this high watermark for the generation we are about to see unfold (from recent memory, you can look at 2014 and 2019 as similar kind of transitional years). However, even with the lack of that defining game or games that stand as the thing that defined the year overall, I found 2021 to be a haven of variety. As someone that has decried in recent times (particularly in The X Button Podcast) about my recent disenchantment with the AAA scene being so dominated by the open world genre, I feel 2021 was a year where different kinds of experiences were allowed to stand out more thanks to the lack of that one game everyone froths at the mouth about (t...

2020. Where to even begin with this year. Coming into 2020, it was hard not to feel exuberant excitement. For all intents and purposes, we were in the endgame of the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One generation that started all the way back in the ancient times of 2013. A new generation of consoles was on the horizon. The last big hurrahs of these systems were getting ready to ship. For many gamers out there, these are the most exciting of times. Then COVID-19 happened.  No matter which way to slice it, the COVID-19 pandemic that shrouded the entire world for the entirety of the year cast an unflattering pall over what should have been the victory lap of this past console generation. For a virus that ravaged and continues to ravage many different corners of the world, leaving lots of dead in its wake and hitting all sorts of working industries and economies hard, focusing on something relatively "unimportant" as videogames would seem like something a little irresponsible when lookin...

Whenever we reach the end of a calendar year, nothing makes me more excited than articles detailing the year that was. Whether it’s for TV, Movies or Games, it’s always fun to look back at what came back and seeing how things did stack up against one another. What was the best thing that came out in the year? What were the things you liked but barely made it to your best things of the year? What were the things that disappointed you? This time of the year always brings fun debate to those questions. For today, I want to focus on the final part of the year that was in videogames. After the first two entries, it is time now for the real deal: My Top 10 Games of 2018, the games I enjoyed the most this year. MY TOP 10 GAMES OF 2018 10. Monster Hunter World Over the years, I would hear just how freaking massive the " Monster Hunter " series was in Japan. Ever since the PSP days, there was always so much word on how this was the...