Before New Game+ began proper, I wrote a few assorted columns that eventually led to the creation of this feature. One of my personal favorites was a small piece about evolution of the survival horror genre, titled “the new horror.” While it was by no means great, it was the kind of thing I loved to examine, even briefly. Recently, the genre has gone through even more drastic changes, to the point where the most famous franchises have fallen on hard times or become less about horror and more about action. That’s fine; it’s how potentially-great series grow and become something bigger (and potentially better) than ever before. READ MORE
When this column originally ran, it was primarily about playing games with your children. To be perfectly honest, I started writing it early. My kids are all two years old. We play Kinectimals together, and I’m looking forward to playing Once Upon A Monster with them when they’re a little bit older. For the time being, though, I am perfectly happy with them being thrilled to play with MegaBloks, stuffed animals and picture books.
What they have done, however, is permanently affect the way that I view the world and how certain things affect me. One game hit me particularly hard this year: Telltale’s The Walking Dead. READ MORE
The twenty-sided die, or d20, is such an iconic symbol of pen-and-paper RPGs that this column was named in reference to it (or perhaps in reference to a Penny Arcade reference to it). Over time, an entire modular system has been constructed around it (aptly named “the d20 System”), releasing it from its origin as one of a half-dozen oddly-shaped dice in a standard Dungeons & Dragons kit and giving it a life of its own.
When I agreed to revisit this column for Snackbar’s ten-year anniversary, I knew that I would have to overcome one fundamental problem. You see… my preferred RPG system of choice, back when I had time for such things, doesn’t use d20s. Or indeed any dice at all that are not ten-sided (d10s).
Welcome to White Wolf’s The World of Darkness (WoD). READ MORE
With the launch of Nintendo’s latest console, the Wii U, now behind us, we here at Snackbar Games have decided it would be best to bring back The Committee one last time and rank console launch lineups. When examining these specific consoles and their games, it became clear to us just how paltry certain system offerings were compared to others. It put some system launches in perspective and gave us a chance to understand what exactly makes a good launch and what doesn’t. Here are the first ten from our top 20. READ MORE
Ten years.
I’ve been lucky enough to be around for almost six of them, but even from the inside, it’s an impressive number. The site was started by four guys in San Antonio before it was common to set out on your own like that, writing about games you love under a united banner with a common goal.
The media environment is way more fragmented these days, and we’ve certainly reconfigured ourselves a few times to find a place for us in the changing landscape. I hope we’ve been successful.
In many ways, though, that’s not what matters. READ MORE
