Luchalma Library - Parasite Eve

Games are fun. You know what the best part of games are? Not playing them. The second best part? Words. With those truths in mind, companies have gone forth creating all sorts of fiction to describe in thousands of words just what Master Chief does on his days off. Video game books have an opportunity to enrich a video game's universe in ways the games themselves can't. It gives gamers an opportunity to connect with their favorite characters on a deeper level. It also mostly sucks.

I've read a fair bit of video game literature, and I'll be telling you the good from the bad and fugly.


First up is Parasite Eve, an appropriate enough book considering it immediately contradicts the premise. Rather than being based on a video game, it was itself adapted into a video game. How or why this was allowed to happen I could not say.

My god, where do I even begin with this book.

The Games of Decade Past

10 years ago, Microsoft released the Xbox 360, the absurdly-named successor to its short lived Xbox machine. With it, Microsoft ushered in a new age of gaming. And I don't mean that in the grandiose way that overexcited middle age men in suits promise every year.

"But not me fellow youths. I just want to talk to you about the revolutionary new GameBox 10. With the power of the digi-cloud, it's going to solve world hunger and feature tight cutting-edge graphics."

For better or worse, Microsoft set the stage for the last generation of consoles. But they were not alone. In the last decade, countless hardware manufactures, developers, publishers, and even everyday normal cool gamers like us have changed gaming as we know it immensely.

Here are just some of the things that have defined video gaming since then.

December Update.

I've never been the type of person to believe in New Year's Resolutions. If people want to change, they should do so any time of year rather than letting the calendar dictate their actions.

Lately my outrageous Steam backlog has been bothering me. I've been craving certain genres and I look at this list that's longer than Ruby Oliver's treasure map of boys (and believe me, that's a long list). So, today I decided, yep, I'm doing it.

That's right, I'm organizing my Steam games, baby! I have done a lot more today than I thought I would, especially considering that I attended 2 Christmas parties today and went grocery shopping (which always takes way too long). I couldn't have done it without my husband, the amazing Lucha Llama.

He's been pretty busy playing Fallout 4 and Alien Isolation when he gets a chance. Together we play Donkey Kong: Tropical Freeze, but we only do so when we have Banana Tim Tams. We also started Little Big Planet 3, Sengoku Basara: Samurai Heroes and Tales of Graces f until it became not fun and Emeraude didn't become my party member, stupid bitch. Solo Bekness has been rockin' Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker, Persona 4 and tonight I'm going to begin Sudokuball Detective and hopefully poundin' coffee so hard.

I'd like to say I'll be bringing you, our loyal readers more reviews over the next few months, but that'd probably be a lie. We will, however, be working on our end of year awards, and they're going to knock your socks off.*

Thanks to all our readers (hah!), and I hope you enjoy the silly season.

*socks may actually stay on

Dramatic Cake Eating #56: Muffin Knight

With some games, you spend months pouring over screenshots, absorbing every trailer, and reading every preview article while you decide if it's the right game for you.

And with others, you're sold with little more than a name. Muffin Knight is one of those games.

REVIEW - Five Nights At Freddy's

Retroulette #37: Star Wars: Yoda Stories

Excitement for the Star Wars franchise is once again on the rise. With every bit of news released concerning J.J. Abrams' Episode VII, fans start with the speculation and uproar. It's important to remember how big and far-reaching Star Wars is in the cultural landscape. There is anything but a shortage of Star Wars video games. More accurately, there is no shortage of shitty Star Wars games.

REVIEW - Dragon's Crown (PS3/Vita)

Orcs & goblins, swords and magic. It's a familiar template for role playing games, and really, a deeply ingrained and important theme going back to the very beginning of video games and its influences. These forms of media are forever popular because they transport us to other worlds in ways that the Big Momma's Houses and shit of the world could only dream. After decades of grand fantasy epics and much badeth Shakespearean accents, what could anyone hope to say about crusty-ass mages that we haven't heard a million times?

Well.

Shake It Up Tonight 55 - A Wolf In Autumn

It's Halloween Weekend here on Beware the Robot Squad! I decided to celebrate my second ever Halloween, with the chance to buy more Steam games with a Halloween or Autumn feel to kick off the weekend. Newly released "A Wolf in Autumn", seemed like the perfect choice.

Stealing Fries Spitefully 54 - Tap Heroes

This game is one of the most ridiculous games I've ever played. I thought it was a cute clicker game.

REVIEW - LEGO® City Undercover (Wii U)

After years, I've finally managed to enter the new generation of video game consoles, more appropriately referred to as "the old generation". So what did I go with, the Playstation 4 or the Xbox One?

This.

Wait, you're thinking to yourself, what is that thing? And other than your lack of logo reading abilities, I can't really fault you for that. It's none other than Nintendo's wildly unpopular Wii U. And really, this system's been unfairly ignored. Sure, like most Nintendo consoles, the best games are Nintendo games. But there are some third party games worth playing here as well. And this game is maybe one of them. Read on to find out!