Brendan Hesse

Welcome back! Our guest this time out is Brendan Hesse. Brendan is a writer for Digital Trends, a Pacific Northwesterner and a former colleague of Dan's at Nine Circles -- so you know there's gonna be some metal in this chat...

Writing clips

IGN

Octopath Traveler's Simplistic Level Design Makes It a Better Game - IGN

Opinion: One of Octopath Traveler's most critiqued elements is actually key to its success. Amid all the praise for Square-Enix's JRPG throwback, Octopath Traveler, there are still some common criticisms. Most focus on how the stories for each of the eight main characters only finally loosely overlap in an optional end-game dungeon, and are otherwise entirely separate with minimal inter-party interaction.

Kill Screen

01/21/2016

Nature, Play, and Spirituality in the Pacific Northwest

A massive mountain stands before you, its miles-high peak slashing at the clouded skies. All around you stand enormous trees and tall volcanic boulders, their jagged surfaces covered with moss. A mist hangs in the air.

Lifehacker

11/08/2018

The Comprehensive Guide to Quitting Google

Despite all the convenience and quality of Google's sprawling ecosystem, some users are fed up with the fishy privacy policies the company has recently implemented in Gmail, Chrome, and other services. To its credit, Google has made good changes in response to user feedback, but that doesn't diminish the company's looming shadow over the internet at large.

Lifehacker

01/10/2019

You Can Download and Play a Free Version of Cult-Favorite Horror Game, 'P.T.' [Updated]

Update: It appears the developer plans to pull the game from Itch.io next week. If you haven't downloaded and plan to play it, grab it quick before yet another version of P.T. disappears. Original story follows. P.T.

Digital Trends

03/05/2016

The 22 best Nintendo 3DS games

The 3DS is the home to the latest installments of long-running franchises such as The Legend of Zelda and Super Mario, and while these game are among the handheld's best, there many more titles that don't fit within the confines set by Mario, Link, or other first-party characters.

Digital Trends

07/30/2015

Here are the top 25 games that made the SNES, well, super

The Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) might just be the greatest video game console ever made. It dominated the market, made the adjective "super" a staple of every millennial's vocabulary, and was home to some of the best games ever made.

Digital Trends

08/26/2016

Collected 'em all? Here are 10 more collection-based RPGs Pokémon fans should try

Pokémon never really went out of style, but the franchise has been on people's minds, thanks to mobile phenomenon Pokémon Go. The augmented reality take on the series is introducing - or reintroducing - thousands of players to the long-running standard-bearer for monster collecting games. Pokémon is essentially like any other turn-based RPG.

Digital Trends

04/03/2018

Audiophile sound meets gaming performance in the best-in-class Arctis Pro

While everyone wants their video games to sound great, the idea of a Hi-Fi gaming headset is rather novel. Sure, there are likely a handful of audiophiles out there who enjoy an occasional evening indulging in multiplayer raids in Destiny 2 or going for the Chicken Dinner in Playerunknown's Battlegrounds, and there have been several headsets in the past aimed at this crowd, but frankly, they never quite hit the mark for us.

Edge Up

02/07/2018

Choosing the best gaming monitor: the display guide for ASUS and ROG - Edge Up

Your monitor is the centerpiece of your gaming setup. Sure, your graphics card might be responsible for all the GPU horsepower, but a great display is crucial if you want to take full advantage. It turns the frames rendered by your GPU into the graphics that define your visual experience.

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