The Buried Story: The Art of Supplemental Storytelling

Ever since the days of Resident Evil on the original PlayStation, I’ve been a sucker for a video game’s ability to tell stories beyond the narrative right in front of you. Many mediums, such as movies, comics or even traditional literature, have the theoretical ability to sneak in tales about people or locations that aren’t relevant to the main narrative, but video games have a decisive advantage in the extent to which this can be done.

Backlog Project: The Elder Scrolls V – Skyrim

Some games in my backlog are ones that I have actually played quite a bit, but it wasn’t until later that I started to care about Trophies and felt like going back to some of them. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is not a new game to me, as I got it the day of release and played it extensively, and even got it again later on PC, which is where I really got my money’s worth by utilizing the vast selection of mods available. I went back to it on PlayStation 3 after realizing I was pretty far along in Trophy progression, and decided to tackle it one last time, after years away from the game.

House of Troubles: Is Bethesda’s “Free Pass” Justified?

Since the turn of the millennium, Bethesda Softworks and their development branch Bethesda Game Studios have gone from an eccentric yet ambitious company, with their own unique visions and goals, to a massive player in the western video game industry, whose name is recognized on the same level as the best of them; everyone invested in the scene knows what they’re about, and especially as a developer they’ve achieved huge popularity and renown. Their development résumé consists essentially of two franchises: The Elder Scrolls, created by Bethesda themselves, and Fallout, acquired from Interplay. Both of these franchises are among the most popular video game series in existence, generating quite a bit of buzz with every new title that’s launched or announced.

Center of the Universe: The “Chosen One” Concept

I consider myself an enthusiast of role-playing games, particularly classic, dense, story-heavy western ones. I regard Baldur’s Gate one of the most defining games of the western RPG genre, and The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind is one of my favorite games of all time. Being exposed to the genre quite strongly, I would say I have a pretty decent understanding of the composition of a typical game of this kind. But even with lesser experience, one can probably distinguish some of the common elements in role-playing games with ease.