PDP Riffmaster Review

Any Rock Band enthusiast who still plays the game in 2024 likely has a guitar or two that has lived long past its intended shelf life. The final game in the Rock Band series, Rock Band 4, released way back in 2015. And though Harmonix was certainly generous with their over 8 years of DLC content, they were less so in peripheral manufacturing. Originally partnering with Mad Catz for the launch of Rock Band 4, they later inked a deal with Performance Designed Products (PDP) for a second run of guitar peripherals in 2016. After that deal expired, also in 2016, no new guitar peripherals were created for the game. For years, Rock Band fans have been forced to deal with a predatory secondary market where used guitar controllers can sell for hundreds of dollars, and new ones for even more. But that changed recently when PDP announced a new guitar controller, officially known as the Riffmaster.

Daybreak Review

In my 20s, my friends and I were smitten with a DIY party game called Fishbowl in which every person writes down words, phrases, quotes, movie titles – anything, really – and puts those words or phrases into a big bowl. Players then take turns trying to get their teammates to guess the word or phrase in a serious of ridiculous rounds. In 2015, an upstart game publisher, Palm Court, brought a game called Monikers to Kickstarter that got rid of the DIY nature of Fishbowl and formalized the game with cards and loose rules. I backed the project immediately and have been following Palm Court, now CMYK, ever since.

Who (and What) Will (and Should) Win at The 95th Academy Awards

2022 was a landmark year for cinema. As the COVID-19 weariness died down, people returned to movie theaters and were treated to tentpole action films like Top Gun: Maverick, James Cameron’s long-awaited Avatar follow-up, and a host of smaller, indie films that filled almost every niche imaginable. What’s most surprising from last year is how many of these smaller films broke through into the cultural conversation. Everything, Everywhere, All at Once became a word-of-mouth phenomenon early in the year, far exceeding its modest box office expectations, and The Banshees of Inisherin rode it’s critical praise to success on streaming platforms, where it has continued to stay a part of the conversation during awards season. Genre films like Barbarian and Crimes of the Future, made small, but notable waves, and the Jackass crew gifted audiences with one last dick-filled hoorah on the big screen.

The 95th Academy Awards will be held this Sunday, March 12, 2023, and for what feels like the first time in a long time, the films that are nominated in all of the major categories are films that people seemingly cared about. I’m actually excited to watch the telecast this year because there are a lot of films and performances that I’d love to watch receive their due recognition. There are sure to be some oddball picks throughout the evening, but even the most obscure nominees seem deserving this year. So with that said, here are my picks and predictions for the 95th Academy Awards.

Top 100 Video Games: #1

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (2017, Switch)

It was way back in March of this year that I first wrote about the dangers of the “hype-cycle” of video game marketing (#81: No Man’s Sky). In the run-up to a game’s release, developers and publishers will often inundate fans with teasers, gameplay videos, trailers, and deep dives in order to generate excitement and buzz. But hype is a double-edged sword. It can lead to increased sales, sure, but also to gamer outrage if their expectations aren’t carefully managed. In the 30+ years of my life that I’ve spent playing video games, I can’t think of a game that I was more hyped for than The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.

Top 100 Video Games: #2

Super Mario World (1991, SNES)

From its earliest iterations on the Nintendo Entertainment System, the Super Mario series has always focused on two things: platforming and secrets. In Super Mario Bros., squatting over a pipe can take you to a secret area and jumping into the right brick could lead you to a beanstalk that leads you to the clouds. In Super Mario Bros. 3, hitting the right rock with hammer could take you to a secret area, and ducking through a white block can place Mario behind the level’s scenery. But no game has ever exemplified the two pillars of Super Mario games better than Super Mario World, a game in which the platforming is expertly-tuned and the secrets overwhelming in their abundance.

Top 100 Video Games: #3

RollerCoaster Tycoon 2 (2002, PC)

For any other Top Games of All Time list, RollerCoaster Tycoon 2 may seem like an odd addition to the canon. But if you’ve kept up with this series as I’ve been writing it, then you might be less surprised. Since the entry for #93 (and later in #s 75, 48, 44, and 15) I’ve made very clear my love for simulation games; how they imbue the player with a sense of freedom and creativity. Newer simulation games, such as Cities: Skylines and Planet Coaster, utilize the power of modern PCs to give players untold amounts of freedom and control over their creations. But there’s also a simple joy in being constrained by the limitations of older games. They tend to be more focused, with a gentler learning curve. For that reason, and for the fact that I’ve played it for more hours than any game on this list, I can think of no better game to christen my Top 3 than RollerCoaster Tycoon 2, the best simulation game of all time!

Top 100 Video Games: #4

Sid Meier’s Civilization IV (2005, PC)

I was in college, majoring in history, when I first experienced a Civilization game. I did so illegally, pirating Civilization III from either an early BitTorrent site or the P2P file-sharing software, LimeWire. As someone who has always held a deep fascination with history, Civ III, gave me countless hours of enjoyment back in my cold, filthy, college dorm room. It was with this game that I learned the ins and outs of the Civilization formula: the various paths to victory, how to defend yourself in times of war, when to engage diplomatically and when to best utilize your military. By the time Civilization IV released a few years later, I was a seasoned Civilization player. There was no way I wasn’t buying it on day one.

Top 100 Video Games: #5

Tetris (1988, Everything)

Tetris is one of the most ubiquitous games of all time. Name a console or device that has existed in the last 40 years, and there’s likely a version of Tetris that exists on it. From the Commodore 64 to the TI-83 graphic calculator to the iPod, Tetris is a game so simple in its design that it lends itself freely to this level of ubiquity. But a game must be much more than simple in order for it to be ubiquitous. It also has to be good. Tetris is quite good. So good, in fact, that you’d be hard pressed to find a person who has never played and enjoyed it, to find someone who has never been addicted to it at some point in their lives.

Top 100 Video Games: #6

Portal 2 (2011, PC/PS3/Switch/Xbox 360)

Portal (2007) was a proof of concept; a charming little first-person puzzler with a single memorable character that could be completed in a few hours. At the time of its release, it seemed more like a cool experiment than a full-on video game. So it’s no surprise that no one outside of Valve expected the game to get a full sequel that would expand upon Portal’s premise. But in 2011, that’s exactly what happened with the release of Portal 2.

Top 100 Video Games: #7

Journey (2012, PS3)

There is no generally agreed definition of art. It is a term used to describe a product involving expression and emotional resonance. A painting can be art, as can a building or a film. But at the end of the day, “art” is entirely subjective. What one person might consider art, another could consider simply “a painting” or “a song.” Roger Ebert, the most influential film critic of all time, once famously stated that video games could never become art. But Roger Ebert also never played Journey.