Nelson Schneider - wrote on 06/16/18 at 05:50 PM CT

I had no expectations for E3 once again this year. I had hoped to see a handful of titles to help justify my Switch ownership, as well as a few multi-platform titles coming to PC that the MJ Crew could play cooperatively. I was not, however, prepared for the absolute tsunami of titles shown off at E3 2018. It was tough to take notes on everything shown off during the three console press conferenc...

Nelson Schneider - wrote on 06/10/18 at 02:42 PM CT

Recently, I was surprised by something said by rotund gaming pundit, Jim Sterling. While usually, I’m very impressed with Sterling’s ability to keep his thumb on the pulse of the modern games industry, this video, in which he revers...

Nelson Schneider - wrote on 06/03/18 at 02:24 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 had a pretty good Spring as far as volume goes… but not so good with regard to quality. The MJ Crew managed to wrap up 2 coop games we’ve been working on for a while (...

Nelson Schneider - wrote on 05/27/18 at 03:04 PM CT

June is just around the corner, and that means it’s time to take a look at what our friendly Uncles in the videogame industry have planned for our Summer fun. This month looks a bit more evenly spread amongst the categories than last month… but the single biggest group of games being released to kick off the Season of Freedom for kids (or not, it seems that kids today are more firmly guided into ...

Nelson Schneider - wrote on 05/19/18 at 06:48 PM CT

Nintendo has been dragging their feet for over a year after the company announced that they would be adding a subscription paywall to online play for the Nintendo Switch (and presumably all future Nintendo hardware). For a while, it looked like maybe they’d changed their minds, but alas,

Nelson Schneider - wrote on 05/12/18 at 06:02 PM CT

The handwringing over the popularity of the Sandbox genre (or style, if you prefer) has reached something of a head. Perhaps it was caused by the fact that Nintendo has finally gotten on board with the idea of non-linear, open-world game design; or perhaps it’s because Ubisoft has continued to produce the same basic Sandbox over and over again, and just released another iteration of it in “FarCry...

Nelson Schneider - wrote on 05/05/18 at 04:23 PM CT

I’ve frequently praised Paizo, the third-party tabletop RPG publishing house turned savior of tabletop gaming, for their consistency and willingness to stick with a rules set for a long time. Unfortunately, that praise must now come to an end, as over the last few months, Paizo has been sending out e-mail blasts promoting the upcoming 2nd Edition ...

Nelson Schneider - wrote on 04/29/18 at 03:14 PM CT

Summer’s just around the corner, and with folks graduating from various institutions of education in droves during the month of May, there will be high demand for a videogame-based escape as they find it impossible to secure employment and begin paying-off their soul-crushing debt. The videogame industry hears the pleas of the downtrodden, and has a whopping 27 game releases slated for the month-...

Nelson Schneider - wrote on 04/22/18 at 03:14 PM CT

I’ve been a fan of the Enhanced Steam browser plug-in for nearly as long as I’ve been using Steam. I admit, however, that, like with most fancy, multi-function software, I don’t use even close to all of Enhanced Steam’s features.

However, while browsing Steam recently, one of Enhanced Steam’s features caught my eye and really threw me for a loop. By...

Nelson Schneider - wrote on 04/15/18 at 03:07 PM CT

Sequels: Love them or hate them, in an Intellectual Property-driven medium like videogaming, wringing all of the value out of an idea is simply good for business. Some companies, like Nintendo, have managed to stave off irrelevance solely via the strength of their long-running franchises. Yet, sadly, in far too many cases, a great IP is cut short and never allowed to live up to its potential. Amo...