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It's time for this talk... Through the many avenues of gaming, there are highly talented creators who will be pivotal in formulating what we consider the future of the industry. As it stands, indie developers in particular are the underdogs who use their ideas to cater to a usually specific audience of gamers, but much like anything, they can grow and evolve. The monster developers that we know today that make the AAA titles that we all seem to pre-order before even knowing much about the game, or the possible downgrades (I'll speak on that seperately actually), we always throw our trust and faith into them because of their track record with games. However, they started off just like the indie developers. I'm not here to really name a bunch of them--as I feel like they all deserve some form of appreciation and recognition for their projects--but when you notice games like Celeste, Dead Cells, No Man's Sky (After the expansion.), Katana Zero, and Cup Head you can understand that even the indie games can be just as fresh and exciting as the ones by major developers. Now a lot of the indie games have a similar kind of aesthetic to them that someone can easily deter as such, yet the same can be said about the bigger games. A lot of the games we put on a pedestal in today's industry are very much identical and pretty much the same kind of game we've been playing forever now, they just have their own settings and usually a higher graphical fidelity as they move forward. Many of them kind of piggy-back off of one another with ideas that aren't as original as we might think. One thing I've noticed about indie games are that the concepts of these smaller teams of people seem much more fresh; usually there's some kind of system or game mechanic that even the bigger games seem to overlook. In fact, a lot of those tend to work better for the indie games. I mean, sure, every game has its "selling gimmick" as I like to label it, and they make up for a large portion of the game's flaws, even when those flaws are game breaking and causes many bugs. There's also that team of indie devs who were previously apart of bigger developers whom decided to branch out into their own thing, so they know the work ethic of being with those companies and apply similar routines to their games, granted often times there's more leniency and not harsh deadlines and that process of development hell that burdens the heavy hitters from time to time. So, as simple as some indie games may seem, I think they're much more authentic to the players than, not all, but many of the games we praise and then eventually forget about. Usually the indie games are overlooked, but then later appreciated, like well, basically an underground cluster of creations that are waiting to reach the surface. The gaming industry itself is tough and ever-growing, ever-changing rather, and standing out is something that will be the key aspect of selling a game if you don't already have a trail of loved games that sold well, or at the very least, caught the eyes of consumers. Many games today, as I've previously touched upon, are carbon copies of one another because people flock towards familiarity over innovation sometimes. I feel like with the new wave of VR gaming that's being pushed as the vision for the next level in gaming, the indie developers will be the ones to push that technology. Hell, even now you can see that most of those games available on VR are by them, and it would be smart for them to hop on it while it's still fairly new and honestly not in its prime by any means, when we consider what kind of games we actually idealize about. The problem with a lot of games today are that, they are cash grabs that milk us of our worth and valuable time. That same game that you just spent all this money on for extra content will just be made again the very next year with little to no changes besides what they probably could of added to the first game with a simple update. These game sequels are simple updates. Alternatively, the games that take like half a decade or more to create are valued because we can sense that the developers took their time and resources to create it in the best possible, polished way for us to enjoy for the years to come, until they surprise us with something else. Indie devs are similar to that because they're creating the games that they WANT to make, not that they HAVE to make out of financial desperation. Let's be honest though, money is a pretty awesome commodity to have for obvious reasons, but the soul and passion shouldn't be sacrificed for greed and instant gratification. Of course, this can also be the case with many indie developers, but no where near as obvious as top-notch developers and publishers. We may not entirely recognize it right now, but indie developers are exactly what we need to keep this industry afloat. If you're anything like me, you become fatigued of, well to be blunt, corporate bullshit and false advertisement centered around revered game titles. Indie games can't help but get sucked into the midst of it all a lot of times, which is unfortunate, but I feel like true gamers will understand what to support and share for the sake of turning this industry around to what it should be for a healthy community of gamers overall. People will always like what they want to like, naturally, but the point is, it shouldn't be forced upon the outsiders of gaming because of majority rule. That's my take on the matter. There's certainly a lot more to be said, but I'll leave that to whoever wishes to engage with this topic so that we can make it a known discussion that should be brought up more often than not, in my opinion. For any indie devs that may stumble upon this article for whatever reason, you deserve all the respect you think you should have, for sure, and keep up the good work, because we'll need you now more than ever!

Technology is ever-changing and everyone can clearly see that, however, that doesn't mean that all of the previous hardware is not held in high regard even for the current era. Consoles have come a long way from having absolutely no saves available to memory card slots to full blown hard drives and variations of them. Obviously, the quality of games and how much that can be rendered and loaded into one shot has been outdoing it itself consistently, but sometimes it's more so just about the overall vibe of the console rather than the features that half of us never really use, yet it sells itself to us. Back when controllers looked like extensions of arcade game or just when they had long cords that we'd constantly yank out of frustration and end up blowing the end of it to make it temporarily function properly, hell, we use to have to blow the games. Not only that, but back when the disc trays weren't as stable, so they discs would scratch up after extended use and the consoles would overheat fairly quickly. Some of that was just a part of the experience, which we can look back on and laugh or appreciate, however, if we were in those same conditions for the present day, then we would be forever talking shit about it. Life was definitely simple when it was just a matter of getting a game and playing it, instead of getting the game, getting the dlc, getting the bundle, preordering, etc, etc. This doesn't hinder the experience of gaming to say that it was better previously, being that these things present more options and opportunities for gamers, although, it is something to consider if we're merging the current route of gaming and the back to the basics style of gaming. Personally, I think the best console for me would be a tie between the N64 and the PS2. The N64 has such a cool looking design in my opinion, and the controller looked kind of like the logo of it, but I guess that was apart of the gimmick. Not to mention, the cool looking game art on the cartidges that gave this epic retro/modernized look for games at the time. Even blowing the game slot was apart of the experience as you'd play with friends and come across a game breaking glitch that was resolved by one or two birthday blows into the game. The PS2 was just a system that everyone around me seemed to have, so we'd trade games like Yugioh cards and even borrow memory cards so we could play from someone who had maybe all the game characters or levels unlocked. I'm aware that there was network gameplay capabilities on the PS2, but I've never seen anyone who actually used it, knew how to use it, or even knew what it was for. Those two consoles are the ones I appreciate the most in terms of the games that they've introduced me to that will probably never be replicated again really. Sure, there's plenty of N64 emulators and such, but it's hardly the same, and for the PS2 it's very desolate and not as easy to find, but there are some out there. (Link me some and it'll be our little secret). There are many other consoles that I could say are my favorite ones, but that doesn't really mean that they are the best ones. I would categorize that quite differently because your favorites aren't always the best and vice-versa, but enjoyable regardless. In short, everyone has a console that they would consider to be the best because of its affect on their gaming experience, as well as the timing of it in their personal lives. I'd be interested to see what everyone's favorite is, and why? Leave a comment!

The saying "third time's a charm" is a ritual for lots of video game franchises. Usually after the third game, they go off into a bunch of spin-off series that can be just as prominent as the original sagas, but ultimately don't recapture that same level of story telling and sense of adventure. From the old Spyro game trilogy, to the resistance games, the modern warfare games, the Jak & Dexter games, the original Devil May Cry trilogy, and now the newer ones, like Borderlands 3's release, there is always a sense of closer that is given when the third game arrives. My favorite personal trilogy would be the Assassin's Creed Ezio trilogy. It's great to go through a story that links between 3 games, and they all stay true and consistent to the character and the time period/locations that they were set to. You start off as Ezio, literally as a baby that had just been born, and them you play from that point up until when he's an old man that's trying to find the truth of the assassin's order. It's games like that, that have impact on the player where they feel as if they lived through an entirely separate lifetime. Alternatively, the trilogy could be just a few classic/highly regarded games that are from the same developer. For example, if you were to buy a trilogy from Rockstar Games that included GTA 4, GTA 4: The Ballad of Gay Tony, and GTA 4: The Lost And Damned, or the original three 3D games (III, Vice City, and San Andreas), or even a hybrid trilogy that included Midnight Club 3, Bully, and one of the GTA games. The best trilogies aren't always the ones that follow a consistent story, but that can also provide interesting variation of gameplay and immersion. Regardless of such, this is just for the sake of having an overall verdict of what may be considered the best trilogy in gaming to date. Obviously everyone has their own favorites and it's opinionated, so we'll just base this on the general reception for a particular trilogy and go from there. I'd be interested to know which ones, and why? Comment below!

Through various seg-ways, puzzles, dungeons, set-pieces, and mission layouts, there are always those one missions that takes everyone numerous tries to complete--if they haven't given up on it already. When you just want to shove your controller up the ass of the developer for making your blood pressure rise, from sitting through such a daunting task to complete. I myself can't even begin to list the games that come to mind that have turned me over to the dark side with just one mission. I guess the point of the game is to be challenging, but it's like they sometimes shoe-horn these kinds of missions in at the last moment and then give them unnecessary conditions that make them difficult. Sometimes you even have to face them after going through an entire mission prior to that one with the same health and barely any health boosters or items to assist you. Other missions, for me personally, are only hard because of the time restraints, or they want you to finish a certain amount of a specific task before you reach a destination or else you're fucked. The only way to beat those missions are to strategize with the layout (eg: the amount of enemies, the enemy formations, the setting, and which abilities will be needed the most in a given part of it). For example, I'm sure everyone by now is familiar with the term, "All you had to do was follow the damn train CJ." It's like the highest form of defeat as it relates to a trailing mission. What about on Devil May Cry 3 when you have to face Arkham as that big demon blog looking shit and you have to fight it like twice back to back with the same amount of health? It's that kind of fuckery that makes you sit there and wonder why the game wanted to test you that much. As previously mentioned, my worst enemy is time. I remember back when I played Simpsons: Hit & Run, the final mission, or something like that, was to take the canister from the power plant and take them all the way across town and have it beamed up to the alien space ship before time depleted. Needless to say, fuck that mission and fuck those aliens. It would probably be a much simpler task to me now, but back then it was top tier gaming difficulty. Or when I would play the Crash racing games and could never beat a certain racer because their car was zooted up on all kinds of shit that you didn't have for Crash, but you would have to study the map a few times just to win it. I also remember back when I played through Uncharted 2 and I got to that part where the blue possessed, cursed people or whatever had came out and they were mad overpowered and I had like no ammo to fend for myself really, plus the support was being pretty useless. On that note, the same thing happened on on The Last Of Us, when I was on the part where that creeper starts chasing you around in the diner as you play with Ellie. It was damn near impossible to beat on the harder difficulty. The list goes on and on because the hardest mission doesn't even have to relate to a boss or time restraints or handicaps, it can be literally anything. There are obviously games out there designed to fuck people over, like Dark Souls or that one game where you play as the little cube and then hop across platforms to avoid vanquishing and having to start all the way over (Probably should of done research on it before mentioning it here, but this is all just from the mind), but there's many games out there like that one anyway that are indie-based. Additionally, since everyone has a game that gave them migraines in the time of excelling past that point, I would also like to know what game is universally hard for every gamer. Like, is there a game mission that absolutely no gamer can pass on the first attempt or even the first few attempts? Some games have the intention of never being beatable, but many people find ways of exploiting that overtime. It's be interested to see which ones you all come up with. More importantly though, which game mission is the hardest to beat and why? Comment!

This game =Your life. Countless hours have been put into games as a collective, but everyone has maybe one to three games on average that they have chipped a ridiculous amount of time into. After a while, these games become a distant memory that you can hardly remember playing that much, or that many times, until you look at your save data and recall the adventure and commitment. Other times, there are games that you still play up to this very day and add addiional time to them, even though you've essentially become a guru of that game. Not only that, but these games may fluctuate across generations of games and consoles, some that have ported to current hardware, some that has been emulated, and some that only remain where they were originally debuted. Nonetheless, every gamer has a game or a few that they've thrown away their outside life for, in order to enjoy and abuse it further via playtime. Personally, I've put a lot of time into mainly open-world and sandbox-esque games. For example, I've played through Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen maybe 4 times, and 3 of those times with the same character to just further progress and make different choices throughout the adventure. My save is from 5yrs ago, even though my most recent save is of late last year, and I plan on just playing through it again with my same character or just buy it on the Switch and just fuck around with it on the go with a fresh character. I've played Dishonored just as much, playing through each mission numerous times since maybe 2013 or so and choosing every possible route, outcome, and play-style for that game. Then there's games like DMC3-- where I've been playing that game since before I was even able to catch the mature references in it. I also use to play a bunch of Dragon Ball Z games to the point where I'd confidently face anyone or not sense a threat because of the amount of time I put into learning every combo and character advantages. Some of those games don't even necessarily need to be based upon full action/immersion. They could be other games that have virtual world, social aspects to them, like Second Life, IMVU, Roblox, etc, etc. I've definitely had my huge share of being involved in those types of games too. Those games are trickier to determine the playtime though because there's no objective or progression to make in them, you just kind of play whatever avatar you please and then further invest into that game with real world currency. I guess the main idea is to pin point which game you've played the most, for sure, instead of just a bunch of examples of which game it might be. I'd be interested to know what games we've commonly chose to worship with our time and attention, as well as ones that seem to only have value to you personally that earned your time. Comment!

Most games that we play, we can only travel back into the past to experience them again via their designated consoles of that era, or we can find some sort of emulation for them to mimic the experience, yet it still lacks the magic that the original game and setup had captured. A lot of games from older times have been issued through services that allow you to pay a subscription to play them on the current hardware, but have you ever thought of a specific game in particular that you'd give anything to have brought to life again for the current time, with better gameplay, visuals, and replay-ability? Back when Rockstar Games had released GTA V, the next holy grail of open world games, I was shocked by how much of the original game in that location--GTA: San Andreas--had been implemented into this new, fresh take. Then after getting so used to playing it, I started thinking about the first GTA game that I ever purchased, Vice City. I remember how that game blew my mind, being from the east coast myself, and having a good time experiencing where I lived, but in a video game. Needless to say, I spent a lot of time on there fucking people up with katanas and running over elderly people as I was on my way to jump out of a car that had a hooker in it. I feel as though they could obviously remake that game, with better everything and not set back in the 1980s. Well, I guess it wouldn't count as a remake, being that they'd give it another title and have a different set of characters much like the previously mentioned games. In terms of a game that I'd like to see completely brought back with everything intact--from story to characters to locations--I'd have to go with games like Devil May Cry 3, Assassin's Creed 2, Mortal Kombat Armageddon, Conker's Bad Fur Day, Crash Tag Team Racing, The Simpsons Hit & Run, Star Wars Battlefront 2 (The one that's good), etc, etc. Too many of them to name really, but a bunch of those just have a great level of nostalgia for me. They have all kinds of remakes now that vary from games like Spyro The Dragon to Resident Evil 2 to the upcoming (probably for another decade) Final Fantasy 7 Remake. Other games have just been given new releases into their franchises after what feels like forever, like the late Kingdom Hearts 3. You'd think that some of these developers would be excited about the idea of recreating their older masterpieces, but I guess that also comes with other legalities and such that probably make the process harder to do than to just make something new entirely. Sure, there's also things like backwards compatibility that could at least allow us to replay those games as they are, but that concept isn't that lenient right now--at least, not on the level that we're all imagining. What game would you remake and what new additions would you add to it? Comment!