BehindThePixel

Weekly Gaming Ideas

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    • Quick Sesh

      I need a five minute break from work to catch my breath and there are two screens on my desk that I can reach for. One is always on me and within milliseconds I will flip a coin on watching either the funniest video I will never remember or a video of a car accident that I seemingly had no control over seeing. The other screen I can wake up and instantly hop into the run of Star Fox I started the night before. Seems like probably the easiest choice in the world, right? Unfortunately for the past decade it hasn’t been, but I’m getting there. 

      No matter what latest piece of tech I’ve drowned myself in, I haven’t been able to break reaching for my phone when I have a minute. Of course my PC and PS5 are full blown scheduled endeavors at this point (Counter Strike night is on Tuesday’s). Even the original Switch and Steam Deck I put in the same place in head as other consoles. I tricked myself into thinking if I don’t have at least 30 minutes, that sitting down and playing a game would take far too long to load into. I mean, what if there was an update for god’s sake? All of that has come to a crashing halt over the past few months with a little genre I like to call the ‘Session Game’. 

      If you look up the definition for session, it sounds EXACTLY like what pushed me away in the first place. (A set amount of time set aside for a specific task) But really the type of game has been the most important factor when it comes to how accessible playing for 5 minutes really is. Playing something like an RPG, if you’re in a mission and you want to pick up and play briefly, you might forget the dialogue and miss an important story beat. Or if you want to quickly hop into a game of League of Legends, well I’m sorry you were late to whatever followed. Recently I’ve picked up Forza Horizon 6, Star Fox, and Splatoon Raiders. Each brings an entirely different genre to the table, however all of them you can quickly hop into, play for as little as 3-5 minutes, and get on with your day.

      Forza being an open world, car lover’s and Japan lover’s wet dream, is everything one could want in a racing game. It takes me right back to my first ever all-nighter playing Midnight Club LA on the Xbox 360, just running race after race to unlock a cooler and faster car until I heard my parents getting ready for work. You’re able to constantly explore a dense map littered with collectables and races of various categories. It’s rare for races to exceed 4 minutes, so you never feel like you’ll have to quit in the middle of one. Plus who doesn’t want to drive a Halo Warthog through the mountains of Japan?

      Star Fox was one of the first games I ever played on our family’s Nintendo 64. The iconic characters, voice lines, and 3D sci-fi world left a huge impression on me. DO A BARREL ROLL. Sorry, that just comes out sometimes. When Nintendo announced a complete remake, I was cautiously optimistic. A part of me worried that the gameplay may have aged poorly being an arcade style, on rails, shooter. After picking it up after launch and completing my first play through I had the dumbest smile across my face. I’m pleased to report the gameplay has aged like Anne Hathaway and the updated ships look like how I pictured them back in the late 90’s, but now actually cool. Being able to start a run and play levels that barely hit the 5 minute mark have made it one of my go-to’s when work calms down. 

      If you could have given me Splatoon Raiders in middle school instead of Call of Duty, I think a lot less random people online would hate me. I haven’t even had this game for a week yet, but it’s one of those titles where I’m trying to find more time in my day to play it. It’s a third-person PvE looter shooter where you’re a squid slowly gaining better weapons, abilities, and upgrading a base. The story is the same here with bite-sized levels the same length as Star Fox, except the variety is ridiculous. On top of hordes of missions and dungeons, you’re able to play with friends or strangers if you choose. This ability to instantly hop in a lobby with someone asking for help on a dungeon, or send out the bat signal yourself, scratches that same itch for me that I’ve had ever since playing Call of Duty World at War on the Christmas of 2008. Except instead of my voice cracking while screaming at someone over not planting a bomb, you just hit your d-pad down to say “Booyah” and fight salmon with your fellow mollusks. 

      Using games as a brief escape during busy work days over what might pop up on my phone has been a massive improvement for me mentally. I also find that session games with their missions having a start and end make it much easier to find stopping points. All of the ones mentioned here even tell you your mission time, so there’s no worry of being late for the next meeting. Ultimately I’m not sure what got into me over the past number of years, because I’ve always preferred controllers over touchscreens.

      -Evan Kuhn

    • In Your Hands

      Where the hell are the batteries? A common phase I used to ask in order to progress my Castlevania Circle of the Moon save on my GameBoy Advance growing up. Or the need to take my hoodie off and drape it from my head to the passenger headrest in front of me, so that I could actually see the non-backlit screen on a sunny roadtrip. These problems haven’t existed for decades now as we have sacrificed true portability for handhelds that couldn’t even fit in the pockets of JNCO jeans. But it’s hard to complain about being able to play Cyberpunk 2077 at 30,000 feet in the air. 

      I have an incredibly doughy spot for gaming handhelds. Growing up while completely entrenched in console gaming with the PS2, that didn’t stop me from bringing my GameBoy Advance, then Nintendo DS, then PSP, then 3DS… everywhere with me. At the time the PSP felt enormous with a 4.3 inch display. But compared to its Nintendo counterparts, the performance and AAA development support made it feel like more of a home console on the go. I was able to play an entire Madden franchise season on a road trip to Ohio, or play Star Wars Battlefront on a local network with my cousins at Christmas. I would ultimately leave the handheld at home shortly after the Nintendo 3DS was released. It felt like the industry was leaning primarily towards a power hungry, graphically driven, home console experience. That was until Nintendo uploaded a Youtube video in the fall of 2016. 

      The Nintendo Switch would go on to launch in 2017 and revive my love for handheld consoles. This concept was one I had dreamt of, and remember fantasizing about with my buddy who had a WiiU. What if we could just play console games anywhere we went? Being able to slap controllers to the side of a console and resume what you were just playing on the TV blew my damn mind. Now the chipset in the Switch was about comparable to a 2013 smart phone, but Nintendo would work their magic to hide those cracks with first party titles until the Switch 2 released 8 years later. Every remake would feel like playing the game for the first time again. Skyrim for the 6th time? Of course! Because this time, it’s in your hands. 

      Valve would take that same philosophy of home power on the go in 2022, with the release of the Steam Deck. With their own operating software, Valve was providing a handheld (that requires a backpack to carry around) that can play almost your entire Steam library. For PC gamers and handheld enthusiasts, Gabe Newell just walked on fucking water. When you buy a new console, one of the worst things is that launch window where you have this new shiny toy and there is only one decent game to play. When this console arrived at my apartment it contained a Steam library I have been overbuying for since 2012. While the Steam Deck was criticized for its lackluster battery, it was at the same time delivering enough power to play Red Dead Redemption 2 and have it look just as good as when you first played it on the PS4. This power to portability dilemma is the new crossroads where portable gaming finds itself. 

      With the cascading success of the Switch into the Steam Deck, there are now dozens of PC gaming handhelds and a much more powerful Switch sequel. All of these hardware options have helped create demand in the market to increase support from developers. Coupled with the majority of development advancements coming in the form of resolution scaling, which make prettier games easier to run on less powerful hardware. Gone are the days of developers having to make two different versions of the same game for different hardware. This leads me back to previous points of now you have a Nintendo console and PC gaming consoles where you’re able to play your favorite AAA releases, indies, and everything in between, everywhere you go. Of course it’s hard not to harken back to the GameBoy where you played your first Pokemon, and say that it was your favorite handheld. But if I came to the bus stop with a Steam Deck playing Devil May Cry 5, your head would’ve exploded.

      -Evan Kuhn

    • The Fight for Time

      If my 3,276 hours in CounterStrike have anything to say, it’s simply ‘there aren’t enough hours in the day’. As I have grown up and carried the hobby of videogames with me, I have always felt that way. Even if I can look back on 136 and a half days spent of the last 10 years on just one game alone. There are constant sacrifices being made as minor or major as they might be when we make a choice on what to put our time into. With an ever growing backlog, new games releasing every week, and the clock growing smaller by the day, what do you choose? CounterStrike, probably. 

      I love competitive shooters. Ever since I was introduced to Halo and Call of Duty in the Xbox 360 era, that repetitive loop to make some number go up by mowing down other people online had its hooks in me instantly. As I continue to play I find the real reason these games draw me in is the countless sleepless nights spent screaming with friends. Adding competition and shit talk really is just icing on the cake. 

      Now with a job that requires more travel and not as many nights to game competitively, I rarely opt for the competitive shooter if I have a moment. My only time spent playing them is either on the designated Tuesday CounterStike night, or if I catch the impromptu ‘you up?’ from the guys on Discord. If I’m picking up a game by myself, I prefer to play it that way. This has been a new value of escapism for me and that hasn’t always been the need or reason I have wanted to fire up my computer. 

      If I’m playing a shooter it has been purely for the hang. It’s been super valuable for me to recognize that, because outside of hanging out, when I get a minute for myself I’m hopping into my backlog or the latest single player game. I would get absolutely DOGGED on by friends for never being able to beat games, but buying all of them. Because every time I fired up my Xbox I was getting a party chat invite and instantly hopping into Call of Duty. Now I find myself beating more games than I ever have and getting lost in these worlds. And I have a new found appreciation for videogames as a whole because of it. 

      Probably the entire reason I wanted to start a blog and talk more about videogames is because now I truly see it as a hobby and something I care about. Friendships hold one of the largest parts of my heart and videogames was a slice of that. Now being able to experience games like Doom, God of War, and Red Dead 2 by myself then going on to share those stories with friends has created a whole new layer of depth to the hobby. 

      As much as I’m now trying to go through my backlog and revisit all of these classics I picked up for 90 minutes previously, I also still love the latest and greatest. I’m now making a lot more lists and just playing even if time is limited to 15-30 minutes. That was always the golden time period where I would end up on reddit or twitter, because I was telling myself the 30 seconds it takes to boot up a game was actually 5 of those. Or if there was an update that might be 45 seconds, it wouldn’t even finish before I had to head out. Now if I beat a game, I can check my list or what might have just come out that looks interesting and I just play. It has led me to beat more games than I could have imagined over the past few years. The best part is that I won’t ever run out. Don’t get me wrong, I would love to experience them all, but there aren’t enough hours in the day.

      -Evan Kuhn

    • Half the Budget, Double the Passion

      Over the past five years some of my favorite games have been coming from smaller studios with a lot to say. Of course triple-A (AAA) games will forever be at the forefront of the industry with budgets now that start with the letter ‘B’ and communities will continue to highlight loveable indie titles. But I want to give a moment to gaming’s middle-child, the double-A (AA) game. It’s difficult to put parameters on what makes a studio AA, but it’s really what falls in the middle between a guy in his basement making the next one-hit wonder on steam and a skyscraper full of people making sure you’re able to play as Ice Spice in the next battle pass. What draws me to these games is that they feel like it’s what the developers wanted to make and not what was necessarily going to sell.

      Whether people know it or not, AA games are making a splash and it’s happening at a time when videogames need it most. Look at last year’s Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 which took home 9 awards at the Game Awards including Game of The Year. The game people are already calling a modern classic, was developed by Sandfall Interactive with a team of, you guessed it, 33 people. Compare that to the most recent Assassin’s Creed installment which was led by a development team of over 400, and it’s going to raise some eyebrows of consumers and executives.

      I know there is a bit of a misunderstanding because I said AA games were a middle-child, yet one was crowned as 2025’s best game. But there are games out there that completely sum up the hidden charm that comes from this tier. Games like Evil West. Developed by Flying Wild Hog, Evil West is a $50 package that embodies everything I love about grabbing a controller. Picture Van Helsing as a cowboy that beats werewolf and vampire ass with electric fists for the United States of America. Yeah, I know. And all in a campaign that doesn’t overstay its welcome at roughly 11 hours, the game is trying to be a critically acclaimed masterpiece that is going to turn into a live action film. Instead it delivers quintessential escapism and makes you feel like the biggest badass on the planet for a couple of nights over a weekend.

      If you look around it’s very possible a triple A studio that once made your favorite game has been turned into a support studio for a live service game, or has closed its doors. If you’re lucky enough they haven’t been scooped up and spit out by one of the mega-corporations trying to consume everyone in sight. Now, the split in funding seems to be becoming more drastic for the titles that make money every year, making it more of a challenge to create the next great story. Hi-Fi Rush was one of my favorite games of 2023, launched to overwhelmingly positive reviews, and was seen as the most recent bright spot in a grim time for XBOX. However the impressive player count of 3 million wasn’t seen as enough for a title that was shadow dropped, as the studio was shut down in August of 2024, a year and half after release. The upside is that some acquired studios like Double Fine which once made whacky games like the Jack Black hack-n-slash, Brutal Legend, and the trippy 3-D platformer, Psychonauts, are helping to change that narrative by becoming independent once again. 

      Corporations continue to prove they are looking to occupy every second your eyes will give them, whereas developers want you to enjoy the experience they have put into the world. AA studios may not have the marketing budget to get God’s attention, but they are delivering some of the most unique and fun experiences you can play right now. And that’s why we play, right?

      -Evan Kuhn

    • Nostalgia Goggles

      No matter what era you grew up in or when you first picked up a controller, it’s hard not to think of that period as gaming’s “Golden Age”. It’s a tale as old as time itself and those thoughts transcend gaming. Now we can discuss the good ole days with thousands of people online and feel even more validated than your dad did when he was telling you about the 90’s Bulls your entire childhood. There’s no doubt that many things just feel worse now and in an industry that is a constant news barrage of layoffs, price increases, and cases of corporate greed, we all start looking for ways to reconnect with our “Golden Age”. Well I’m here to tell you that we’re all a bunch of old men yelling at clouds. 

      Groening, M. Old Man Yells At Cloud [Digital Image]. IMDb. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0701252/mediaviewer/rm2933195264/?ref_=tt_ov_i

      I recently caught myself in a rut with the hopeless feeling that I have nothing interesting to play. Dude, with Steam family share, I literally have access to ONE THOUSAND VIDEO GAMES. After countless nights of scrolling up and down my steam library and staring at a PS5 in my living room that only powers on for the latest Sony release, I did what any man would do. I hopped on Facebook marketplace and found a guy selling an original PS2 and a massive games library 4 suburbs over. 

      Not having a CRT in my Seattle apartment caused some hiccups. I needed an HDMI upscaler, that way the 26 year old console would be able to work on a 4K TV. After that was solved, I realized the port had some damage and I wasn’t getting any sound. That led to the purchasing of an optical audio cable. After all of these additional purchases and even disassembling the console to clean the optical laser, I was ready to game like it was 2002! 

      Firing up the PS2, hopping into Devil May Cry 3, and playing on a TV that is way too big for how long PS2 controller wires are, was truly an experience that is only matched when you step back into your childhood home. Except this time I recreated it, big and better, 2,000 miles away. After the tutorial and first boss fight it all really sunk in. I’ve stopped playing the kind of games that I loved as a kid. 

      Games today bloated with microtransactions and battle passes are not inherently worse than what you were playing growing up, and they’re not the only games being made right now. These games pull you in with billion dollar budgets because they teamed up with your favorite IP and you really want to pay $19 to be Samurai Batman. Now, I have been leaning into the latest games in my once favorite genres and it’s entirely changed my outlook on modern games. 

      I recently played through Saros, a roguelite, bullet-hell shooter that your brain thinks you probably played something similar back on the Xbox 360. But with modern shooting mechanics, jaw dropping art direction, and some of the best sound design I’ve ever heard, there’s not a chance something similar could have been made then. It’s also been years since I picked up a racing game, when it used to be all I would ever play. I grabbed Forza Horizon 6, and I feel like it could be one of the best ones to grace the genre. There are a lot of shitty things happening that can be pointed to the corporatization of the games industry, at the same time, studios like Sony Santa Monica, Rockstar, and Naughty Dog have been delivering stories that deserve Oscars.

      While it can be easy to want to go back to the way things were, try to pick up a game that shows you how far we’ve come since then. Maybe it is a franchise that just remade your favorite classic title, or maybe a genre you haven’t dove into since you were in your basement. Don’t treat nostalgia like a locked trophy case of your favorite games, use it like a map to find your next one.

      -Evan Kuhn

    • The War of the Wallets

      In the wake of never-ending price increases to modern consoles, PC components, and everything you need to live, there’s an undeniable war among console makers for our ever-shrinking wallets. That war may just be decided based on value alone. The Nintendo Switch 2 is delivering the best gaming experience for the price. It may seem strange to hear that (it certainly feels strange to type it), but not only are they pulling ahead of the pack, they’re poised to lap the field in the coming year. 

      Nintendo launched the Switch 2 at a $449.99 price point, and at the time, the public generally viewed that as point-and-laugh funny. Even Nintendo fans deemed the price a stretch, figuring their money was buying a little more processing power and a party chat feature that has been on everything not Nintendo since 2006. The screen would be bigger, but would ship with an LCD panel versus the vibrant OLED display of its predecessor. Even though the console would debut with the first Mario Kart installment since 2014’s Mario Kart 8 (which went on to become the fifth best-selling game of all time at 79 million copies), the reception of the Switch 2 launch was room temp. But no one saw what Nintendo did, and their vision is paying off for gamers everywhere. 

      Somehow, Nintendo’s long play of avoiding the hardware demands of triple-A developers paid off, and they are positioned to undercut the upcoming market by as much as 50 percent. 

      Totilo, S. (n.d.). It’s Xbox’s turn (again), as console prices keep going up. https://www.gamefile.news/p/console-price-hike-chart-bungie-cuts-video

      Thanks to data center hyperscalers like Microsoft, components like RAM have seen an astronomical spike in demand. That means higher prices, and since RAM is as necessary for servers as it is for PCs and consoles, costs skyrocket for us consumers. 

      The average console shopper isn’t thinking about the fact that people generating videos of their dogs dancing is causing a power grid crisis or supply chain chaos, but they will definitely notice the impact on the price sticker. In a year’s time, the highest-performing PlayStation and Xbox models will be pushing $900 and $800 respectively (Microsoft, you clever girl). A new challenger has also entered the living room, but unfortunately the story is the same. The recently-announced Steam Machine comes in as the first console like experience at over $1,000. When you’re spending more on gas than a GTA VI preorder, those numbers will make casual buyers check their banking apps a few times. Enter the Switch 2, which Nintendo announced will increase by only $50 in September, bringing the price to $500. 

      Not only does the console boast the best Nintendo catalog to date and backward compatibility, but developers said needing to port their titles to the Xbox Series S paved the way for Switch 2 development, meaning triple-A titles are beginning to run in the palms of your hands with minimal compromise. 

      Currently, the Switch 2 features a great Mario Kart title, is loaded with first-party gems like Donkey Kong Bananza and Metroid Prime 4, and also offers game-changing updates to all-time greats from the Switch (such as Breath of the Wild, which makes you feel like you’re stepping out of that cave into Hyrule for the first time again).

      On the horizon, Call of Duty, Madden, and Assassin’s Creed fans can look to Nintendo this fall for the first time ever, and the combination of catalogues could dominate the war of the wallets without much resistance. Having missed out on games like Resident Evil for the past two console generations, Nintendo left an entire segment of the market uninterested. Now, gamers will be able to play Cyberpunk 2077 on the same machine they play Super Mario Bros. Wonder on, with less cost and more mobility. Put another way, the Switch 2 and Xbox Series S will cost the same, but only one of them will allow you to play the same titles in your living room, bathroom, and at the coffee shop down the street without you ever having to save.

      Nintendo has delivered a complete experience, allowed competitors to drive development for their cost-controlled hardware, and exclusively offers mobility at a cheaper price than anyone else. It turns out last April when Nintendo announced their slogan for the Switch 2, it wasn’t just a message for players, but it was a shot to the rest of the industry. “All Together, Anytime, Anywhere.”

      -Evan Kuhn