Nelson Schneider - wrote on 02/26/12 at 05:33 PM CT

Welcome back to another installment of the MeltedJoystick Review Round-Up. Here’s what our staff has reviewed since last time:

Nelson’s Reviews:
I reviewed a broad variety of things, including two non-traditional FPSes and the most over-hyped game in the Wii’s library. I also got the chance to experience the full ...

Nelson Schneider - wrote on 02/18/12 at 03:05 PM CT

Videogame development has been in a state of flux for the past few years, moving from a niche business to a bank-busting industry seeking to find a home alongside the other forms of Big Media. Yet this incredible prosperity came with a lot of growing pains. This generation has seen more hardware failures than any other, this generation has seen publisher greed lead to crackdowns on used games and...

Nelson Schneider - wrote on 02/12/12 at 03:24 PM CT

This generation of consoles has seen numerous changes – with most of them coming in the form of things I dislike. One of the most obtrusive changes is the way in which online functionality has permeated every facet of our consoles. Once stand-alone bastions of simplicity, consoles have become just as dependent upon the Internet as PCs.

Had online functionality been implemented in a console-mi...

Nelson Schneider - wrote on 02/05/12 at 04:07 PM CT

I have noticed a disturbing trend in games this-gen. Not just my favorite genre of RPGs, but many genres, including strategy and even FPS, have become increasingly focused on one gameplay mechanic: Grinding.

Grinding was introduced long ago in the first RPGs. Games like “Phantasy Star,” “Dragon Quest,” and “Final Fantasy” a...