The Weekend Paper - October 24, 2015

Welcome back!

The Weekend Paper took a brief… uh… seven month hiatus. That's not to imply that I haven’t been writing and creating content in that time. I’ve continued to make videos on my YouTube page and I’ve played a boatload of games. Though, my gaming time has been mostly dominated by Rocket League, a wild combination of cars and soccer. I’m working on a lengthy article centered around the emerging eSports scene for Rocket League. If it’s not picked up by a website for freelance, that might appear on a later edition of Weekend Paper.

Most importantly though, I attended and covered my first E3. I went on behalf of Extra-Life (the annual fund-raising event for which is coming up soon), and worked with Jack Gardner who runs the blog for the non-profit organization. I was able to meet some people I greatly admire, while writing about and playing a ton of games.  None of it would’ve been possible without the help of Jack, Jeromy Adams of Extra-Life, and everyone who supported my Go Fund Me to buy my plane tickets. I can’t express my gratitude to all of them enough. If you’d like to read some of that E3 coverage, head over to the site.

This week’s Weekend Paper is a grab bag of fun, with hopefully something that will interest everyone.

• ·         If you’re looking to purchase a new console this holiday season, but can’t decide which would be the best for you, or your loved ones, I’ve made this Venn diagram guide to help you parse out the fine differences between the contenders.

• ·         Mario Maker is charming the pants off of gamers everywhere, even those who aren’t playing it. I can’t say I wasn’t enthralled by the Ryckoning competition between Patrick Klepek and Dan Ryckert. But one game set the stage for Mario Maker three years ago and I wanted to give it therecognition it deserves.

• ·         Just in time for Halloween, I reviewed UntilDawn, a cinematic, interactive horror game that I ended up playing cooperatively with my wife.

• ·         I also reviewed Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture, a poetic, hauntingly beautiful meditation on human nature in the face of absolute mortality.

• ·         And finally, I reviewed the light-hearted platforming jaunt, Grow Home. Spoilers, I loved all of these games that I reviewed.

Hopefully you enjoy this edition of The Weekend Paper and don’t forget to tell your friends about it. That would really butter my biscuits. For now, enjoy this meme of my daughter. My how she’s grown.