Celebrating Ten Years of Skyrim by Reflecting on the Past

Posted by DehlinaR

It’s the 10^th anniversary of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim! Instead of wondering what platform I’ll be able to play the game on next, let me take some time to share a few moments of my life connected by the thread called Skyrim.

Introduction to The Elder Scrolls (TES)

My first introduction to The Elder Scrolls series was through some of my classmates in my art school’s spring semester sculpture class. It was The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion release day or 4.20.2006. We had just turned in a major assignment and several students wanted to skip the rest of the day’s classes to go home and play. It made me curious to know what the excitement was about. Although I was out of the loop at the time, I would be ready five years later.

Skyrim Release Day

Release day, 11.11.2011, was two days before my birthday. It was a present I asked from my father, who picked it up at the GameStop where my Beloved-to-be worked at the time. (It’s a good story for another time.) Eager to play the game that Friday, after a long day of classes and fun with friends, I dropped everything and settled on the couch in my living room. I booted the game, installed the updates…and fell asleep.

I woke up Saturday morning with the controller in my hands. What did I do? I started Skyrim of course! I ended up glued to my console all day because it was the most fun I had experienced in a while. Skyrim would have been my first Platinum playthrough if it weren’t for that first DLC.

A Game for Community

Skyrim was one of those games at the time that was not only fun to play, but it was also fun to watch. I watched my friends play. I watched my cousin play after she took interest in the game. I realized that I, the solitary gamer, found enjoyment in a gaming experience that I didn’t control. The soundtrack, environments, visuals, and experiences available in the game were enthralling to me. I watched others play as much as I played.

The Spiral

I purchased multiple versions of Skyrim. I picked up the Game of the Year edition of Oblivion thanks to my experiences with Skyrim. I downloaded and started Morrowind on Steam thanks to my experience with Oblivion. Now, I am a fangirl with Elder Scrolls Online accounts for multiple platforms and volumes of lore on my bookshelf.

Looking Forward

Skyrim and TES series opened my eyes and heart to western role-playing games. I was once a fan of only Japanese role-playing games, but now I have love and respect for both. I have learned to play, enjoy, and critique both.

So, I thank Skyrim for changing my playstyle and reforming my genre prejudice. Here’s to ten years of Skyrim!

Now, where is TES VI?

You Are Cordially Invited…

Posted by tehr3m1x

It’s called The Invitational.

This is a once a month Lunchbox Publications event where we invite a collection of various writers, streamers, broadcasters, content creators, podcasters, and supporters to come join us in a fun (and sometimes competitive) get-together. Games included in this event can range from a variety of titles such as Among Us or Super Smash Brothers Ultimate to upcoming titles such as Halo Infinite.

Since Spring of this year, we have been working hard to get certain things ready for this event, and we are so excited to kick things off this week.

Now how does one get into this event you may ask? Join our official Discord (starting Thursday!) and maybe you will be chosen to join us and the rest of the invitees.

Be sure to also bookmark our website, follow us on Twitch, and our various social media platforms to stay informed of upcoming Invitational events.

The first Invitational starts this Friday, October 22nd with Among Us.

The Pros and Cons of 2018

Posted by breakingb0xes

With the year winding down and just a few weeks left (still plenty of time for more surprises to be fair) let’s look at some of the notable events that occurred this year.

Gaming

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Pros:

Red Dead Redemption 2: A world that not only meets the status quo of Rockstar, but exceeds it with the amount of detail, depth of story, and seemingly endless hours of game play (with online still on the way).

Synchronizing online play: Despite some disputes on how it will all work, there has been a rise in cross-platform online play. While Fortnite is currently the only game to work across all platforms, Rocket League, Minecraft, and Hover are examples of games that play with more than the platform you may own them on.

With Microsoft supporting purchases across PC and Xbox with their play anywhere initiative, it looks to be a positive future regardless of your platform of choice.

SSBU: Possibly the final entry in the series (at least with Masahiro Sakari at the helm), this game delivers every single good thing you’ve experienced in a Smash Bros game and then some. Touting an epic proportioned story mode and the largest cast of fighters yet, this is a must grab for any Switch owner out there.

Spider-Man: Although this is only for the PS4, when a Spider-man game is good, it’s great! Everything you could hope for in a sandbox superhero game and a bit more.

Cons:

Tell Tale: The company hit it big years ago with their Walking Dead series and came out with some promising titles after including their takes on Minecraft, Batman, and Game of Thrones. However, their lack of game play variation and poor management saw a very ugly end to the company.

Fall Out 76: This game was either going to be a hit or a miss. Unfortunately, the launch was a huge miss. Between the messy BETA, the amount of glitches, and the over reliance of multiplayer to compensate for the lack of story and NPC’s, the launch has been messy to say the least. It’s now lead many players to wait until Bethesda can provide more incentive to dive into their new Fall Out experiment.

Music

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Pros:

Honestly, this has been a great year for music in this writer’s opinion. With releases like Kid Cudi’s Kids See Ghost,Anderson Paak’s Oxnard, Pusha T’s Daytona, Idles Joy as an Act of Resistance, Portal’s Ion, Sophie’s Oil of Every Pearl’s Un-Insides, Kanye’s Ye, and Brockhampton’s Iridescence to name a few album titles there was really at least two albums in most genres this year that were great to amazing to listen to.

Cons:

The cons aren’t long in length, aside from some inflated drama with celebrities, the biggest hits came in those who passed in 2018. One of the most tragic losses being that of Mac Miller who passed away due to an accidental overdose. Mac Miller’s untimely passing was felt by many, and his positive influence on the world will be missed even by those who never got the chance to meet him.

Cinema and Showtime

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Pros:

Marvel, hands down the current king on the super hero genre and Infinity War was a true epic to everything that had come before, with more to come this next year. Worth catching in the theaters and a fresh take on the whole Avengers formula.

Broly is coming, again. With the mixed success of Dragon Ball Super, a new movie is on its way and while it has yet to hit, the impact of the trailers alone is palpable and is promising an anime movie release to rival that of the Pokémon franchise.

Whether it’s via broadcast or streaming service, television shows may be at its peak right now. The only real problem is there may be too much worthwhile content. It’s hard to keep up with things on Netflix, Hulu, and network shows from Fox, NBC, Showtime and so on.

With a controversial split between Marvel and Guardians of the Galaxy’s director James Gunn, Warner Bros. wasted no time in penning Gunn as the new director of the sequel to Suicide Squad. One of the silver linings of the fall out is the sequel to one of DC’s bigger disappointments is getting a promising upgrade in direction.

Cons:

Marvel is also on the con side of things. The whole franchise is huge and has plans to keep growing, but the burn out can be felt by some casual movie goers and fans alike.

To bookend the Marvel expansion issue, is the seeming end of the Netflix Marvel universe with the end of Iron Fist, Luke Cage, and Daredevil, all announced this year. It’s not too surprising considering Disney is now going forward with their own streaming service, but is still a blow to those that enjoyed what some of these series offered on the service.

YouTube may not be considered a television or movie source (at least not legally), but it is becoming harder for new content creators to be interested in coming to the site. YouTube’s ability to pay its creators has been coming under repeated scrutiny over the past few years it does not seem to be heading for a positive resolution, especially with the EU’s Article 13 (see more here). There is some worry about any appeal to this platform’s future.

Conclusion

All in all it has been an eventful year yet again in all types of ways. We had so much to be thankful for with new groud breaking in all areas of pop culture. The bad always comes with the good and it can only be taken in stride as we continue to see and enjoy the innovation in what we as consumers enjoy so much. We can only hope for more of the good (without more of the bad) as 2019 quickly approaches. So lets say a so long to 2018 and embrace the new year with open arms.

Embrace the New Year and don’t forget to follow us on Twitter for the latest news @tehlunchboxpub!

Happy 20th Anniversary Half-Life from Wookiefragger Gaming!

Posted by stephon90

Hello to all of our followers and newcomers. Here’s a special piece from our friend over at Wookiefragger Gaming.

The First-Person shooter is one of the most popular and enduring game genres, with a rich history that includes some of the most important video games ever made. In the 2000s, shooters would come to flood the market, and with each passing year, it became more difficult for the cream to rise to the top, but in the 1990s, the genre was marked by mighty classics that stood out like redwoods among the bushes. I’m referring to games like Doom, Quake, Duke Nukem 3D, Goldeneye… and Half-Life.

“A person seemingly with no voice, the character of Gordon Freeman only emerges through his actions, and with no morality -or lack thereof ascribed to him by anything other than the decisions of the player”

During that decade, realtime 3D graphics were going through some rapid growth spurts, and standing apart from the rest of the pack was often accomplished by trying out new ideas as the technology allowed, but sometimes, a game could distinguish itself by polishing ideas that were previously explored, but limited by hardware constraints, and Half-Life is pretty much the exemplar of this. Some of the greatest strengths of the first-person genre are its intensity, instant gratification, and its ability to immerse players into the mindset of the game, and Valve, the developers of played to these strengths by designing the game as one long, continuous environment, broken up only by the occasional loading screen. But never a level transition.

The primary setting of the game (the Black Mesa Research facility), is a fully realized setting, with dark secrets, strange quirks, and a cold, cynical logic in its design. Much like Shadow Moses Island in Metal Gear Solid, Black Mesa is a place where the left hand was never intended to know what the right hand was doing, and now that things have gone wrong, the powers responsible are still trying to manipulate events from the shadows, with the player caught in the middle.

“The primary setting of the game (the Black Mesa Research facility), is a fully realized setting, with dark secrets, strange quirks, and a cold, cynical logic in its design”

In Metal Gear, this meant Solid Snake, but in Half-Life, this just means you. Well, technically it means Gordon Freeman, (Half-Life’s protagonist) but Gordon is a character devoid of characterization. A person seemingly with no voice, the character of Gordon Freeman only emerges through his actions, and with no morality -or lack thereof ascribed to him by anything other than the decisions of the player. While the game mostly only lets you interact with situations and people in terms of violence, not everyone in the game is an enemy, and the possibility for selfishness exists in these interactions with friendly non-player characters. Do you try to save the scientists, or just try to survive? Do you ask the guard to accompany you, or do you take his weapon for yourself? In terms of the greater plot, these moments don’t count for much, but, assuming that you finish the game, how you played it will have defined whether or not Gordon was a hero, or just a survivor.

Half-Life’s impact on first-person game design really cannot be overstated. The game made heavy use of scripted sequences in order to advance its plot as well as to shock, astound, or otherwise provide satisfaction to the player, and all of this without ever resorting to the use of cut scenes. While games at large wouldn’t ultimately treat in-game scripted sequences as an alternative to cinematics, their use became a staple of the medium in the years following Half-Life’s arrival, and these kinds of sequences are often among the most memorable parts of any game. It certainly -obviously- wasn’t the first game to marry the progression of a game’s story with the actual act of playing the game, and that’s not the kind of credit I’m trying to give it here. However, it did it all so expertly that once the game proved to be a commercial triumph, an entire industry snapped to attention and started taking notes.

“Half-Life’s impact on first-person game design really cannot be overstated. The game made heavy use of scripted sequences in order to advance its plot as well as to shock, astound, or otherwise provide satisfaction to the player”

When compared to the other classic shooters of its day, Half-Life didn’t distinguish itself through its technical or gameplay innovations. Instead, it was distinguished by its craft. A frantic and chaotic thrill ride with an eerie science-fiction yarn, and sold by detailed environments and intense scenarios it sparked positive changes in first-person game design. It is still a source of pure excitement for gamers, as well as inspiration for developers. Every part of what made Half-Life great could be seen in other games before its arrival, but collected and employed in the service of Gordon Freeman’s harrowing adventure, each separate element sings together in harmony. It is this culmination of possibilities that makes Half-Life a shining example of the genre, and to this day, it still stands as one of the finest testaments to the potential of the first-person shooter.

Thanks again to Wookiefragger Gaming! Subscribe to his YouTube channel for more if you liked what you read. And feel free to follow us on twitter @TehLunchboxPub!

Best of E3 2018

Posted by Adrienne Ayala

Since E3 has ended, it’s given me some time to contemplate the games I found that stood out to me the most. It was tough. We were treated to so many announcements, but there were some definitive trailers that have caught my eye.

Image result for assassins creed odyssey Assassin’s Creed Odyssey

Set within the glorious Greece timeline, we’re introduced to familiar but fresh combat systems and flexibility with a whole new twist on our main character and the overall development they acquire from the trailer.
Continue reading →

2018’s Electronic Entertainment Expo: Best in Show?

Posted by Jarrett Rogers

Another E3 has come and gone with surprising annoucements, reveals, and more games to be looking forward to later this year and the following year, it’s that time again to discuss which game truly stood and which conference takes the gold.

At this year’s E3, many games were shown off that grabbed our attention, and our wallets, although only a handful of titles truly deserved it.

Continue reading →

Raging Bethesda

Posted by breakingb0xes

bethesda-e3-2018 Bethesda, one of the most well-known gaming companies in 2018 has come to E3 for their fourth showcase. If E3 were a game of poker among these game developers, then Bethesda just showed their hand, and it seems like a high-end full house. Starting the night off with an opening from Andrew W.K performing Ready to Die while leading into the RAGE 2 demonstration. Continue reading →

Five Years Kingdom Hearts… Five Years

Posted by stephon90

After Five years of waiting since the first teaser was released, Square Enix finally has an official date for the highly anticipated third installment.

Kingdom Hearts 3 will release early next year on January 29th for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. January 25th will be the release date for it in Japan. The original release date was supposed to be scheduled for this year but was delayed. Below is a statement issued by Franchise director Tetsuya Nomura via twitter regarding the delay. Continue reading →

Fallout 76 Trailer

Posted by Jarrett Rogers

Bethesda is best known for creating stunning and vast worlds in their games, and Fallout is no exception. A few weeks ago, Bethesda had released an image of their classic, “Please Stand By” in bright colors. Fans had suspected that it could possibly be a remake of Fallout 3 or New Vegas however, that wasn’t the case.

Bethesda had released a teaser trailer for Fallout 76, in the trailer we were taken to a familiar scenery inside a vault shelter with party decorations in the main dining room, with vault dweller wearing a jumpsuit with the number “76” on the back. Continue reading →

Halo Infinite Trailer

Posted by Jarrett Rogers

Microsoft started off strong by showcasing a trailer for Halo Infinite, as the trailer showcased a vast landscape, beautiful scenery, and a vast wildlife. While nearing the end of the trailer, we see a group of soldiers, it’s possible to be marine soldiers, walking through some fields.

Then, the trailer pans to show Master Chief holding his helmet, then putting it on as he inserts Cortana, or some other form of A.I. into his helmet.

While not much else was shown in the trailer with no new information presented, fans should expect Master Chief to make a return in this new game.

Halo Infinite is being developed by 343 Industries and will be released on windows 10 and Xbox One. No announcement yet on a release date. Make sure to follow us on twitter for the latest news @tehlunchboxpub