Author: Westen
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Avowed Review- Completely Expected In The Most Unexpected Way
I’ve often joked that Obsidian is my ultimate 8/10 machine. If they put out a game, I’m probably going to give it an 8/10. I don’t view this as derogatory at all. I generally love their games. They are well-made experiences that often bring something interesting to the table. But they’ve also never quite been…
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My 10 Biggest Winners From The 2025 Triple-i Initiative Showcase
Indie games continue to be on fire. They are one of the biggest reasons that I love video games so much. I have completed five different indie games this year. One was a cozy game that turned the conventions of the genre on its head. One was a narrative game with heavy RPG elements. One…
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Koira Review- What A Human-Dog Relationship Really Means
There is an entire movement around making sure you can pet the dog in any game that has a dog. Despite all this love for dogs in the video game space, even games that have deep interactions between the human characters never seem to truly capture what the human-dog relationship is actually like. I’m not…
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BigNerdGaming’s Top 10 Playstation 2 Games
Welcome to another BigNerdGaming top 10 list! This is the next list in my somewhat chronological journey through every system I’ve ever owned. This is all building up to me doing an overall top 50 games of all time list at the end. I’ve always wanted to do a top 50 games of all time…
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How The Switch 2 Reveal Finally Convinced Me To Buy A Steam Deck
Back in the mid 2010s, I was absolutely thrilled with the announcement of the original Nintendo Switch, as I always enjoyed owning Nintendo’s portable consoles, but generally felt underwhelmed by their “big” console offerings. Finally, I had a portable machine that could also play the bigger Nintendo releases. It was the best of both worlds,…
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Learning To Love A Dog Again Is Easy And Complicated
One of the strangest things about the weeks and months after a dog passes away are the inevitable questions that come afterward. Namely, “When do you think you’ll get another dog?” It’s an odd thing to ponder in that moment. It feels like thinking about when you might marry again weeks after a spouse passes…
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Cabernet Review- RPG Elements Make Everything Better
Life is a fickle thing that is incomprehensibly different for almost every single person who experiences it. Despite this, there are some undeniable truths to our existence. Life is precious. Life is not fair. You have to love yourself if you want someone else to love you. Touching grass is good. And, of course, the…
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Three Early Impressions- Assassin’s Creed Shadows
Regular readers of the blog may have noticed that I’ve done several of these “three early impressions” pieces, and not all that many reviews so far this year. There’s a reason for that. I’m not completing any damn games! I realized this week that I still haven’t beaten any AAA game this year. I’ve only…
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My Top 10 Video Game IPs That I Wish Were In Different Hands
Last week, I read an interesting article with rumors that Ubisoft was looking to sell some of its IPs to help keep its struggling business afloat. It does not appear that this was true. It looks more like Ubisoft wants to spin off its business into two separate entities, with one holding its more prominent…
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Hot Take: Game Reviewers Are Doing A Pretty Good Job
I’m not sure if there is anything more obnoxious than game review discourse on video game social media. When a game that people are excited for gets bad reviews, we hear that “the reviewers are morons!” If that game gets great reviews, we hear things like “wow, even these morons like it!” If a game…
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