I was fortunate enough to call New York home for many years and it truly is no hyperbole to say that the city is someplace special. To my immense joy, on Tuesday the city elected a new mayor — one who sees the city much the same way I do, a place where anyone can… Continue reading A New Story
Author: Joshua Tong
Board Game Feel
I was excited but skeptical when I first heard about a board game based on Mass Effect. I love board games, I love Mass Effect, but tying the two together seemed a risky endeavor. Board games have a lot to do with their theme — that is, the flavor that surrounds the base mechanics. Monopoly… Continue reading Board Game Feel
Dancing About Architecture
Music is something I don’t write about often here mostly because it is something I find really difficult to write about. Which is a shame, because I love music; I just don’t really, well, know what it is. I can talk about video games and game feel and player agency and I can talk about… Continue reading Dancing About Architecture
Dave of All Trades
Dave The Diver is ostensibly a game where you dive for fish by day and sell sushi of your catch by night. There’s a light restaurant management sim thrown in there to support the selling of said sushi, and a fish farm to, uh, farm fish for the restaurant. There’s also a basic farming sim… Continue reading Dave of All Trades
Go Home, Google
Not much of an essay or a rant this week for various reasons, but rather a quick observation that, wow, Google search has gotten real bad. Like, I can vaguely see how the connection can be made. Forsaken did see the guardian go rogue (renegade, if you will) and had a bit of a Western… Continue reading Go Home, Google
Future Tense
I knew Leigh Brackett as the writer of the first draft of Empire Strikes Back. It was only when I came across an old copy of The Long Tomorrow at a used bookstore that I learned she was a prolific science fiction author as well. The Long Tomorrow is a fascinating read—I don’t think I’ve… Continue reading Future Tense
Things Going Wrong
I had a plan in Death Stranding 2. I cleared out a bandit camp then left my truck there while I ran a couple errands nearby. While on those errands I was informed that my truck had been stolen. This threw a wrench in my plans, but nothing insurmountable. So I finished up that errand… Continue reading Things Going Wrong
Open-Ended
After taking my time and enjoying it, I finished Death Stranding 2: On The Beach last weekend. At least the main story of it, I still want to finish a few orders and max out my connection with everyone — but the main part of the game is done. And man, is it excellent. Despite… Continue reading Open-Ended
Pokémon Go On A Walk
The year is 2025 and, nine years later, I’m one of the people still playing Pokémon Go. The world has changed since the game came out in the heady summer of 2016. Technology no longer seems to have as optimistic a future as it once did. A worldwide pandemic saw us retreat from each other… Continue reading Pokémon Go On A Walk
The Myth of Vegas
I am not a fan of Las Vegas. I passed through it a few years ago and was, well, unimpressed. The Strip struck me as oddly artificial, like a simulacrum of a city like New York. A recreation in a controlled environment without the perceived dangers of a real city, where a visitor doesn’t need… Continue reading The Myth of Vegas
Essays, Not Rants! 