When I need food, I drive past the local grocery at the bottom of my hill and hang a right on the way to the Von’s, a chain supermarket farther down the boulevard. But today I just need bananas...
https://www.quartertothree.com/fp/2022/08/05/marvel-and-meaning-part-1-just-bananas/
In 2021, I finally came to appreciate the Hitman games, although part of appreciating them is realizing how little they’ve progressed since their latest model. Hitman III is great, to be sure. ...
https://www.quartertothree.com/fp/2022/01/14/top-ten-games-of-2021/
Oh, look, half of 2021 is gone already. I hadn’t noticed that it was time to take stock of the best games of the year so far. Note that anything that might have come out on or after July 1s...
https://www.quartertothree.com/fp/2021/07/15/the-top-ten-games-of-2021-so-far/
When we were doing the Qt3 Movie Podcast, we would normally see about fifty movies a year in the theater, because we had a podcast once a week for new releases. This year was different because we...
https://www.quartertothree.com/fp/2021/01/19/the-top-ten-movies-of-2020/
Collectible card game design has come a long way since the days of Magic’s blue denial decks.You can almost see the edicts that must have come down from the high halls of design theory: don’t...
With ten days left in 2020, it’s time to count down the top games of the year. I’ll add a new one every day, so drop in as the list builds. Or you can come back on New Year’s Day for a comp...
https://www.quartertothree.com/fp/2020/12/22/the-top-ten-games-of-2020/
Here are the latest review requests from my Patreon supporters, followed by my counter-recommendations. Think of it as a broad overview of what my Patreon supporters are doing, along with a look ...
https://www.quartertothree.com/fp/2020/12/07/and-the-winner-of-2020s-final-review-request-is/
Bruce Geryk doesn’t want to tell you why Hades is so good. And he’s got the right idea, because discovery is a lot of the joy in Supergiant’s triumphant return to form (everything that ma...
https://www.quartertothree.com/fp/2020/10/17/i-want-to-tell-you-why-hades-is-so-good/
I didn’t like The Crew 2. At all. But that was two years ago, when it was initially released, minus all the cool stuff that comes with seasons passes, paid DLC, and free updates. Presumab...
This used to be a video. I would ask my $10 or more Patreon supporters to request reviews. Then I would sit in front of a video camera, read the requests, offer a counter-recommendation for e...
Now that we’re officially in the second half of 2020, it’s time to look back at the first half of 2020 and consider which of the games released so far are the best. Because that’s what ca...
https://www.quartertothree.com/fp/2020/07/01/the-top-ten-games-of-2020-so-far/
So you’re sitting at your dining room table and there’s no one else there to play boardgames. What do you do? Glad you asked, because I have ten suggestions. Some of the usual suspects...
https://www.quartertothree.com/fp/2020/06/26/the-top-ten-solitaire-boardgames-of-all-time/
After I finished playing Control, I wrote one of those snooty reviews that talks a lot about subtext and themes and the designer’s possible motivations. Basically, stuff that doesn’t includ...
https://www.quartertothree.com/fp/2020/02/17/the-2nd-best-game-of-2019-control/
Boy, do I feel silly about this. A Marvel boondoggle taking up a slot on my 2019 top ten list? I don’t even really like superheroes. They’ve been foisted on to me. They’re shrapnel in a...
https://www.quartertothree.com/fp/2020/01/08/10th-best-game-of-2019-marvel-ultimate-alliance-3/
Since I was a wee tot, I’ve been enthralled by Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, his 1843 five-chapter novella, and particularly its filmed adaptations. I’ve seen them all. “Canonical...
Look, you and I both know calling something “the best” is really just a way of jumping up and down and shouting to get your attention. It’s shameless, I know. But now that you’re here, ...
https://www.quartertothree.com/fp/2019/07/01/the-best-games-of-2019-so-far/
First the usual disclaimer. Here are the the notable games I didn’t get to play: Vermintide 2, Return of the Obra Dinn, Pathfinder: Kingmaker, Forza 4, God of War: Dad Edition, Battlefield V,...
https://www.quartertothree.com/fp/2018/12/30/top-ten-games-of-2018/
These are some great games you probably didn’t play this year! Which is a shame, because frankly, they should be on more top ten lists. Unfortunately, mine ran out of space, so I’m putting th...
https://www.quartertothree.com/fp/2018/12/28/ten-most-overlooked-games-of-2018/
This is never a fun list to make, because these are all games I wanted to like. Without exception, they are games I was looking forward to playing. What went wrong? My expectations, the games...
These are games that I briefly tried, often during a livestream, and then made a mental note that, hey, that might be worth spending more time with! At which point, they tumbled into the backlo...
https://www.quartertothree.com/fp/2018/12/25/top-ten-games-of-2018-that-are-uh-possibly-good/
Why is it doing this? It’s not stopping. Sure, a couple clacks would make sense because something mechanical has happened and that’s a sound mechanical happenings make. Clack. But why is it c...
https://www.quartertothree.com/fp/2018/12/05/when-videogames-turn-annoying/
Red Dead Redemption 2 will talk you through most of what you need to know. For the most part, it’s not a challenging game and it’s not trying to be. It just wants you to spend time with it wh...
Founders Breakfast Stout won a drawing for my Patreon review requests. Since I wouldn’t have any idea how to write about beer or what to even write — it’s bubbly, it tastes like beer, there...
With this week’s release of the zombie DLC for Far Cry 5, Ubisoft has fulfilled its commitment to folks who bought the season’s pass. So how did it all turn out? What did you get for your $30...
My first thought upon flipping through a volume of Jean-Michel Basquiat works from a 2005 exhibit in Brooklyn was, “This is Basquiat?” He has such an exotic and dignified name. I assumed some...
https://www.quartertothree.com/fp/2018/07/28/basquiat-the-uninformed-opinion/
Top ten first half of 2018 The year is only half over and it speaks volumes that when I sit down to make a list of my favorite ten games so far, there’s no room for Into the Breach, Subnautica,...
https://www.quartertothree.com/fp/2018/07/03/the-best-games-of-2018-so-far/
There have been some terrible years in the modern age. 1939 can’t have been much fun. 1973 must have been a real bummer. 2001 was a sobering experience. But 2017 stands alone. It might be the w...
https://www.quartertothree.com/fp/2018/01/23/reverberating-impact-2017/
I might have included on this list of top games some really great 2017 releases if they felt more like 2017 releases. Total War: Warhammer 2, Dominions 5, and Spintires: Mud Runners are all great...
https://www.quartertothree.com/fp/2017/12/31/top-ten-games-2017/
Overrated is a loaded term. It looks good in a headline. It’s often used for no purpose other than to goad a reaction. But that doesn’t mean it isn’t useful. When I call a game overrated, I...
https://www.quartertothree.com/fp/2017/12/29/overrated-games-2017/
So if the most disappointing category is a list of games that should have been better, the most surprising category is the opposite. These are games that were better than they should have been. J...
https://www.quartertothree.com/fp/2017/12/28/surprising-games-2017/
Calling a game disappointing arguably has more to do with me than the game itself. Disappointment isn’t an inherent quality. It can’t exist without some sort of expectation in the first place...
https://www.quartertothree.com/fp/2017/12/27/disappointing-games-2017/
Back in 2011, I wrote an article detailing the five Pinball FX tables I’d like to see. They were Star Wars, a Western theme, splatter horror, the Cold War, and Bioshock. Zen Studios must have b...
https://www.quartertothree.com/fp/2017/11/04/10-things-missing-pinball-fx3/
At the halfway point through 2017, you don’t really need people to write articles about how they like Nier and Horizon Zero Dawn and Ghost Recon: Wildlands and that new Zelda game on the Ninten...
https://www.quartertothree.com/fp/2017/07/10/ten-best-unknown-games-2017-far/
I don’t have a Switch, so I can’t get on the Breath of the Wild bandwagon. I’m not sure there’s room for anyone else on that thing anyway. And I haven’t cleared the six hours from my sc...
https://www.quartertothree.com/fp/2017/07/01/best-games-2017-far/
In the tradition of renovating their games so that they’re almost unrecognizable (in a good way!), Stardock has pulled away the scaffolding from Galactic Civilization III to reveal the Crusade ...
https://www.quartertothree.com/fp/2017/04/28/galactic-civilizations-iii-crusade-makes-space-great/
I can only think of nine reasons Monopoly is terrible. But I can think of at least ten reasons Mage Knight is terrible, so it takes the prize as worst boardgame of all time. Here are the ten reas...
https://www.quartertothree.com/fp/2017/02/14/10-reasons-mage-knight-worst-boardgame-time/
I can understand why Simon Parkin, one of the rare videogame critics worth reading, seems to be feeling some anxiety about his job. A lot of people feel must feel that way, whether they’re plum...
https://www.quartertothree.com/fp/2017/02/05/simon-parkin-asks-question-really-shouldnt-asked/
I can think of at least nine reasons this list might be lacking: Gears of War 4, Uncharted 4, Titanfall 2, Salt and Sanctuary, Kathy Rain, Virginia, Forza Down Under, Dead Rising 4, and The Last ...
https://www.quartertothree.com/fp/2016/12/15/top-ten-games-2016/
Overrated is a loaded term. It looks good in a headline. It’s often used for no purpose other than to goad a reaction. But that doesn’t mean it isn’t useful. When I call a game overrated, I...
https://www.quartertothree.com/fp/2016/12/14/overrated-games-2016/
So if the most disappointing category is a list of games that should have been better, the most surprising category is the opposite. These are games that were better than they should have been. J...
https://www.quartertothree.com/fp/2016/12/13/surprising-games-2016/
Calling a game disappointing arguably has more to do with me than the game itself. Disappointment isn’t an inherent quality. It can’t exist without some sort of expectation in the first place...
https://www.quartertothree.com/fp/2016/12/12/disappointing-games-2016/
And that’s a wrap for an entire month of horror recommendations! As we leave you with a couple of picks that didn’t quite fit our other categories, we wish you a happily harrowing Halloween w...
https://www.quartertothree.com/fp/2016/10/28/make-everything-else-scary-friday-favorites/
Comics have embraced horror since the earliest days of the medium, from EC Comics and Will Eisner on through to the present day. Since the Comics Code restrictions were relaxed a few decades ago,...
https://www.quartertothree.com/fp/2016/10/27/make-everything-else-scare-see-funny-papers/
In 2014 Sarah Koenig and her producers from This American Life set the podcast world ablaze with their 12-part true crime podcast, Serial. The incredible popularity of that podcast demonstrated t...
https://www.quartertothree.com/fp/2016/10/26/make-everything-else-scare-earbud-darkly/