video game culture

Do I Want a Sega Genesis Mini?

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Long before Nintendo blazed the trail for what the modern retro mini console should be, Sega had been peddling numerous versions of a mini Genesis. Unfortunately, Sega enlisted a third-party to put the consoles together. The shoddy work of AtGames prevented these mini consoles from being anything more than bargain bin fodder.

This time, Sega promises it will be different. The upcoming Sega Genesis Mini is being developed by M2, who have handled the emulation for the Sega Ages and Sega 3D Classics collections. Assuming Sega finally gets the emulation and production quality right, is it time for me to finally pick one of these up?

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Decorating My Video Game Streaming Space

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Steff and I have big dreams for this basement of ours. We want to rip out the carpet, update the walls to anything other than wood paneling, and knock down the dividing wall so that the basement is one large space. Someday, we envision it being a larger entertaining space.

In light of these plans, I’ve been reluctant to decorate down here. Didn’t want to go through the trouble of putting things up, only to have to duplicate the effort after the room has been renovated. As such, the only real decor you’ve seen of my streaming room until recently was a large Snorlax bean bag chair.

However, a couple of things have happened since we came up with our future vision for the basement. One, our priorities around the house have shifted to other projects. Two, I started taking streaming seriously. Part of taking streaming seriously is ensuring that everything you see adds to the overall experience. Snorlax is cute, but I’m no longer content with using an empty wall and an oddly-placed divider curtain as my backdrop. Recently, I finally decided to spruce the place up a bit.

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Tetris 99’s 3rd Maximus Cup Gives You The Opportunity to Earn a Game Boy Skin!

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Whoa!

Between now and May 19th, 11:59pm PT, you can unlock a Game Boy skin in Tetris 99! All you have to do is partake in the game’s online battle mode and earn 100 event points. It might take a bit of elbow grease, but 100 points is a pretty low bar to reach. Such a cool nod to the old days! Go get that skin before it’s too late!

Buy Tetris Effect Now From Amazon.com

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Nintendo Switch Online Subscribers Can Now Save on Purchases with Game Vouchers

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Introduced at the end of the Super Mario Maker 2 Direct, Nintendo Switch Game Vouchers give Nintendo Switch Online subscribers the ability to save on select games. Sold as a pair for $99.99, you can redeem them for two $60 games and save $20. You can buy multiple sets of vouchers at a time and vouchers are good for a year after purchase. However, it looks like vouchers will only be sold until July 31st.

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Closed Captions for Video and Streaming

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Back when I was doing videos on Facebook, I dabbled with its captioning tools. Everyone benefits from having captioning in place, whether you’re hearing impaired or want to follow along but have to keep the sound down. Facebook even gives you the option of generating captions for you.

Unfortunately, it’s a feature I dropped pretty quickly. Using Facebook’s captions served as a great starting point, but the process of meticulously adding in the captions word-by-word was incredibly time-consuming. A five-minute video could easily take 45 minutes to write captions for, even with the auto-generated captions as a starting point. With so many other things on the go, it was too much of a burden for me to carry.

Ever since, captioning in any form has been something I’ve wanted to roll back into my video offerings. As I’ve gotten more comfortable as a streamer, I’ve come to realize that my ability to communicate with viewers is the single-most valuable thing I have to offer. Having captions on everything I do would better showcase what I do best for everyone.

I may have stumbled on an answer.

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Opening My Eyes to Roguelikes and Rogue-lites

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Despite being a life-long gamer, the Roguelike and Rogue-lite sub-genres of games have largely been left untouched until relatively recently. Didn’t even know what the genre was until I heard about it on a podcast well into my adult years. The sound of grinding through randomly-generated dungeons in an RPG where all your progress is lost when you die didn’t sound like my cup of tea.

In recent years, elements of the Roguelike experience have permeated to other genres while also toning down the punishment. For example, games of the Rogue-lite variety often give players some means of permanently improving their situation in order to make future runs a bit easier. As for me, I have little interest in playing a dungeon crawl in any genre, but I was willing to give Rogue-lite games like Into the Breach and 20XX a chance due to being rooted in games I love like Advance Wars and Mega Man.

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Ian from Adventure Rules and I Hand Out the Keys to Nintendo’s Kingdom in This Cool Collaboration!

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From Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle to Cadence of Hyrule, Nintendo of late hasn’t been shy with entrusting their legendary franchises with third-party studios. With the Mario, Link, and Samus open for reinterpretation, Ian from Adventure Rules and I shoot our shot and slide into Nintendo’s DMs with a few collaborations we’d like to see Nintendo swipe right for. Without spoiling too much, our brainstorming takes us to wildly different takes on one of Nintendo’s newest franchises, an epic RPG that makes room for new heroes to take the spotlight, and a record-scratching take on Nintendo’s iconic music!

Head over to Adventure Rules right now and check out “Keys to the Kingdom: Handing Nintendo Properties to Other Developers“!

It was a pleasure and an honour to work with Ian on this! His ability to write openly from the mind and from the heart makes him one of my favourite creators. If you don’t already, make sure to follow his blog and Twitter for more of his great content!

The Evolution of My Dream Gaming Space

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As a kid, I had this vision for what my dream gaming setup would look like. On one end, a large screen with all of my gaming consoles hooked up to it. On the other end, a nice comfy couch for me and my friends to sit on and enjoy the action. Lined along the walls would be all of my games and gaming memorabilia. Even as an adult, I had it in my mind that I would work towards creating a setup like that someday.

These days, my wife and I are pretty settled into our house. I have the basement as a space to create this gaming den of my dreams. Money is still an issue, but that’s not what’s ultimately stopping me from assembling some version of that dream setup.

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Reviewing Games as an Independent Content Creator

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I’m in the midst of writing my review for Mortal Kombat 11. Taking a moment to reflect on what I’d written thus far, it was over 1,000 words long, with the vast majority of it being focused on a handful of new gameplay adjustments that I find really cool. Whether I keep it all or not, being my own boss here at In Third Person gives me the wiggle room to approach my evaluation of the game in any way I so choose.

Having that freedom is really important to me with regards to the work I do here. While reviews are a staple of the video game content mix, I also find them to be a chore. Especially when you’re writing them with the goal of covering every aspect of what a game has to offer so that your readers can make an informed purchasing decision. It’s an unnatural way to consume and write about games that can really wear someone down over time. If it’s a game you don’t like, the strain to complete the game and review is amplified further.

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