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Opinion The climate of the gaming marketplace: What EA closing Visceral studios means for games. By Josiah Sapp      The gaming industry is still very young and has plenty of growing pains to endure. It’s already been saved once from an absolute crash back in 1983 and has seen it’s fair shares of innovative brilliance and outlandish flops. But where is the industry today? More importantly, where is it heading? In the past several years we’ve seen trends take root in the industry like the MOBA or hero shooter. We’ve also seen new tech that was supposed to “revolutionize gaming” but fell apart due to lack of imagination and support. Something that I didn’t see coming, however, is the dismantling of a founding pillar of the gaming world. The single player experience.     Some of the best and most groundbreaking video games were designed to be played by a single player. A straightforward linear progression with a...

Review Destiny 2: Looks great from a distance but gets messy the closer you get. By Josiah Sapp     Destiny has prided itself on being a jack of all trades. So naturally there is a lot to do and lot to cover when you think about reviewing it. I’ve given this game a solid month of time to stew and settle into my brain as to what it’s trying to accomplish. Giving Destiny a final score only a week out from release seems too quick especially since Bungie released a road map showing a month’s worth of content. The raid, faction rally event, trials of the nine and iron banner were all released within a month. So here’s how my review of Destiny 2 is going to work; I’ve comprised three lists. What I enjoyed, tolerated and what frustrated me about the game. D2 gets a lot right upon entry into the world but once you get into the nitty gritty of the mechanics, it get’s messy really quick. Enjoyed     Let’s start off with some positivity! Des...

Opinion Microtransactions: An old concept that needs clarification By Josiah Sapp     In today’s world, we’re constantly being sold something. Insurance, clothes, jewelry, new tech. It’s impossible to browse the internet without someone trying to grab your attention and give you a sales pitch. We’ve come to accept this type of advertising as normal in our society. It’s something we just deal with and if something catches our fancy, then we’ll buy it but if it doesn’t pertain to us then we don’t give it a second thought. Microtransactions in video games are no different than normal ads but they get under our skin somehow. The idea that a game (either free or paid for) has smaller transactions built within the game has somehow crossed the line. Why is that different than any other advertisement we encounter in the world? For most people, it feels forced.     Microtransactions have proven to be a very lucrative business stra...

Opinion Can modern games ever become classics? The struggle with servers and consistent support. By Josiah Sapp     The library of classic video games seems to be smaller than the myriad of classic movies or music pieces and for good reason. The world of video games hasn’t been around for that long and to define something as “ classic ” means that it has stood the test of time and is of the highest quality. A few game titles that should be considered when talking about classics are Super Mario Bros, Legend of Zelda, Tetris, and Pac Man. All of which were released 30 years ago but what makes these games classics? They are definitely still fun to play today and for the time they were made, considered to be of the highest quality. Some of them even ended up in a museum! However, what about games released today? Can any of them be considered a classic? The trouble lies with the way games are made and need support.     The common trend wit...