Category: Season 5

Play Nice: The Rise, Fall, and Future Of Blizzard Entertainment is the latest book from noted video game journalist, Jason Schreier, and over the course of thirty-one chapters, it walks us through the story of one of the most prominent video game developers of all time, Blizzard Entertainment. The history of Blizzard is available on the internet for free, so why should you spend your hard earned money to buy a book that narrates the same story? That’s where Jason’s experience in being a video game journalist comes in handy. He tells us the story that we have known for years, but adds in some interesting tidbits that give a bit more context to some important events.

I have not made a video review of a book before, so I don’t know what exactly you, as a viewer, would be interested to learn. With nothing more than a guess, I have split the video into different sections. To learn more, watch the video!

Similar to last week’s video on Frostpunk 2, this video about Ara History Untold is not a full review, even though I have finished one full playthrough. Once again, it’s because I feel I haven’t played this game the way it’s meant to be played, which is a strategy game.

I played it more like a clicking simulator, where I set my game on the easiest setting so that I didn’t really have problems with resources, and after a certain point, I just had to keep clicking to go to the next turn, and the game more or less played itself. I did this because I was curious to see how the game would end. I played other 4X games like Civilisation 6 and Humankind, but never really played beyond the first hour or so. But Ara was simple and approachable enough for a casual player like myself to stick till the end. And the presentation of the game goes a long way to enable this.

Sadly, it appears that regular fans of the 4X genre are not too impressed with this game, and it currently sits at a Mixed review rating on steam. However, 67% of the reviews being positive is still a good sign, and hopefully the developers can push some quick updates that will improve the game.

This is not a full review of Frostpunk 2. Even though I have finished one playthrough of the game, I am not comfortable with calling it a full review, because I don’t think I have played this game the way it was meant to be played and experienced. I was just curious about the game based on the success of the first game, and seeing that it was a day one release on game pass, I gave it a try and ended up completing one full playthrough.

Long story short, I liked it quite a lot. It is a blend of a city builder and a survival game, and even on the easiest difficulty, you can never really relax, because things can fall apart within minutes and your run may end abruptly. In fact, on my very first attempt, I got a game over in the prologue, because I was still learning the basics and made a few bad decisions. Then I actually paid attention, and was rewarded with a really good gaming experience. Watch the video for more details!