First Byte LGND

As this is the first year that both E3 and the First Byte Podcast are happening at the same time, I thought it would be fun and … maybe slightly frantic to pick five titles out of the entire line-up of announcements that tickle my fancy.

After a vast spance of longing, Backbone was released on PC this week, and while I could have pulled back on the reigns of excitement prior to leaping in, I didn’t, and yet it still lived up to my desires and expectations. And blew them away in many cases. 

Engrossing, the tendrils of art in its best form -- which can be described as vaguely Any art that “does it for you” -- is something that can live with you for long periods of time. Especially when it is something like a Video Game in which you are asked to spend a lot of time with said art. 

From the same team that brought us amazing and fun video games like Creature in the Well, Manifest 99, and Island Time, comes Stonefly -- a game about tiny beings, building bug-like mechs to battle crawlers, collect resources, and explore their world. And I cannot begin to express how astounding and wonderful this little minuscule universe is.

The story, characters, dialog, and journey through Stonefly is simply described in one simple word; unforgettable. 

It is the birth-child of lo-fi study beats, mesmerizingly beautiful wallpaper, and the stories you tell your kids while you’re tucking them in at night. 

Elite Dangerous is the most polarizing gaming experience I may have ever fallen in to. Odyssey as an expansion is equal parts stunning, and an abomination without clear explanation.

Resulting in a playground that causes awe, and actual gameplay that breeds expletives. There is … SO MUCH … wrong with Elite Dangerous Odyssey, in terms of actual function, that this launch will be remembered as a joke in the near future.

Bend Studio's Days Gone comes to PC more than two years after its debut and exclusive launch on PlayStation 4 consoles.

Now, with little hope that a sequel is in the works, an entirely new audience can twist the throttle on one of my favorite open-world zombie games ever made.

Mass Effect, as a series, means a lot to me.
It means a lot to plenty of people.

Fundamentally changing the modern video game role-playing systems -- gameplay mechanics still in heavy use today -- Mass Effect introduced an entirely new audience of geeks and gamers alike, into RPG fans. And, it took my incessant need to write and tell stories into its arms, and force-fed it. It evolved me. Stranding my recently-sober, high school in the rearview, teenage self on the beach and said “you’ll be damned if you play another game with a soggy story and characters, and feel any sort of satisfaction.”