Evan graduated from Chapman University in 2017 with a BFA in creative writing and a minor in leadership studies. A love of storytelling propels his interest in video games, though he is equally comfortable on the battlefields of multiplayer games as in the middle of an RPG grind. When not gaming he can be found producing music, writing stories, or pondering the big questions in life.
When it released in 2007, Halo 3 had enormous expectations to live up to. The previous two games in the series defined the first person shooter genre on consoles in terms of single-player and multiplayer components, and many gamers looked to this third entry to do the same. On release, Halo 3 received almost universal […] More
Video games can appeal to people for a number of reasons. Some offer the satisfaction of conquering unreasonably difficult challenges. Others present complex stories with interesting characters. Still more exist simply for the sake of having fun. Newt One, a new 3D platformer from 2-man indie developer DevNAri, lands closest to that latter category. A […] More
Last year I compared Final Fantasy XV unfavorably to The Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild. My primary point of criticism was the game’s split identity between an open-ended first half and a linear second half that emphasized an improperly developed narrative. Despite this, the game’s first half is still a fantastic example of […] More
Released at the end of 2016, The Last Guardian made a momentary impact on the industry, mostly due to the sheer miracle of the game escaping over a decade in development hell, before seemingly fading from the general gaming consciousness. Fumito Ueda’s follow-up to the monumental 2005 game Shadow of the Colossus was a polarizing […] More
Many years ago I began watching video game reviews on the internet and stumbled across the now-defunct site called GameTrailers. The site attached a score between 1-100 to games by examining them in constituent parts: story, presentation, gameplay, and design. The first two categories, story and presentation, are pretty clear-cut, but the distinctions between what […] More
Three months ago Super Mario Odyssey released to overwhelming critical and commercial success. The game has been hailed as a towering achievement in the platformer genre, a class of games that has been steadily dying out, and has been a contender for many people’s 2017 Game of the Year. It’s ambitious, whimsical, and above all […] More
2017 has been a renaissance year for Nintendo. Gaming’s oldest purveyor of joy came back from a despair-ridden several years with an innovative and irresistible new console, a consistent set of game releases, and two of the most refreshing games in years. Nintendo has loads of momentum going into the Switch’s second calendar year, but the […] More
Deckhead Games’ Vision of the Future On October 13th, 2016, IndieCade, the largest international independent games festival, took over five buildings on the University of Southern California’s campus. TV screens peppered every room, each one displaying vibrant worlds and creative visuals, suggesting new methods to play games or offering unprecedented immersion through virtual realities. The […] More
It’s safe to say that most people didn’t know what to expect going into The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild’s first, and potentially last, story-based downloadable content, The Champions’ Ballad. Positioned as story DLC, The Champions’ Ballad had a big task to accomplish: reinvigorate players’ desire to explore Hyrule and round out a […] More
Earlier in the year, Nintendo hosted a Fire Emblem specific Nintendo Direct. The presentation featured gameplay details and footage for two additions to the Fire Emblem franchise, the mobile game Fire Emblem Heroes, and the Tecmo-Koei/Team Ninja spinoff Fire Emblem Warriors. Flying under the radar, however, was the brief announcement of a new entry in […] More
Every year The Game Awards are a celebration of the people who work tirelessly behind the scenes to make the incredible games that we play. While last year’s show put emphasis on gaming’s unsung heroes, epitomized by Overwatch’s victory as Game of the Year after a nightmarish development cycle, this year more than ever developers […] More
From VR escape rooms to rhythm games and visual novels to puzzlers, IndieCade 2017 celebrated its tenth year with varied and well-polished experiences. The show floor was a bustling hive of activity that somehow managed to mostly avoid the extended wait times from the previous year. Arriving bright and early, we were able to get […] More
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