I still have my original PlayStation copy of Final Fantasy VII. The four-disc jewel case sits on my shelf alongside other cherished relics from gaming history—my cartridge of Chrono Trigger, my dog-eared instruction manual for The Legend of Zelda, my suspiciously sticky controller from marathon Goldeneye sessions. They’re artifacts from a different era, little time capsules of who I was and what I loved during formative years. So when Square Enix announced the Final Fantasy…
I first stumbled across indie games by accident. It was 2008, I was browsing Xbox Live Arcade out of boredom…
The first time I ever witnessed truly competitive gaming, I was ten years old, standing on my tiptoes to see…
I can still feel the controller slipping in my sweaty palms. It’s 1996, I’m in my friend Dave’s basement, and…
The first time a game made me feel genuinely guilty was in Fallout 3. I’d stumbled across this settlement called…
I remember the exact moment I fell in love with adventure games. It was Christmas 1990, and after weeks of…
The Nintendo 64 changed my life on September 29, 1996. I know the exact date because I’d circled it on…
I remember the exact moment I first held a Wii Remote. It was November 2006, and after camping outside my…
I can pinpoint the exact moment achievements changed gaming for me. It was 2005, and I’d just unpacked my brand…
My parents didn’t get it. Neither did most of my teachers. “You’re wasting your time with those games,” they’d say,…