Use the fields below to perform an advanced search of Ball State Daily's archives. This will return articles, images, and multimedia relevant to your query. You can also try a Basic search
199 items found for your search. If no results were found please broaden your search.
Welcome to this week's episode of How It's Played! This week we are discussing the recent change in leadership at our family friendly, and fan favorite company, Nintendo. Reggie Fils-Aime recently decided to retire from being Nintendo's President. How will this affect the company and what will happen from here on out? All of this and more on this week's episode of How It's Played.
Even a person who has never played a video game before has heard of Tetris. The player is tasked to line up falling blocks in a horizontal row, and once a row is cleared, they get points. The goal of older Tetris games is simply to survive while getting as many points as possible, but newer entries all try to put their own spin on Tetris. At the end of the day though, Tetris is Tetris, and can’t help feeling a little stale even with new mechanics. The game has literally been released on every single game console, even the freaking Philips CD-i had Tetris (complete with an unironically good soundtrack). Games like Puyo Puyo Tetris or Tetris Effect add enough bells and whistles to overpower the Tetris-ness of the experience and end up being pretty amazing games as a result. It’s clear that there’s still potential for Tetris to be more than just another puzzle game with falling blocks.
The opinions and views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not reflect the opinion of Byte or Byte’s editorial board.
by Tanner Kinney
by Tanner Kinney The opinions and views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not reflect the opinion of Byte or Byte’s editorial board. If there’s one video game genre that defines the second half of the 2010s, it’s battle royale. Coming out of nowhere with mods of games, like Minecraft: Hunger Games or the Arma 3 mod that later became PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, it quickly became wildly popular. The genre was massive on Twitch, with PUBG having millions of concurrent players despite being a fairly rough game in terms of mechanics. The genre would later completely explode through Epic Games’ Fortnite: Battle Royale, which is certainly the winner winner, chicken dinner of the genre… or is it? Recently, a true challenger has arrived to take on Fortnite and is actually giving it a run for its money. That challenger is Apex Legends, a game from Respawn (developers of Titanfall) that released out of nowhere and quickly gained quite the audience. The game has found a playerbase of 25 million within its first week, and completely eclipsed Fortnite in terms of viewership on Twitch. Epic finally has a fire under its butt to start delivering on even more player demands, and competition is definitely healthy. And then, even more out of nowhere, Nintendo announces Tetris 99 during their February 2019 Nintendo Direct, a Tetris-flavored battle royale game. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jS-9Y9apW0Q&feature=youtu.be Yes, you read that right, Tetris, but a battle royale. And it actually works way better than it has any right to work. It’s honestly incredible to see something so strange as a puzzle battle royale, but it makes you think: what other games/genres would work for battle royale? I’ve rattled my brain and scratched out some amazing ideas, and have come up with a few games that would be perfect as battle royales. And don’t worry developers, if you take my ideas, you don’t even need to call me. We’ll both know where it came from, even if no one else does.
As always, the first week of the LCS is one of the most important weeks in the split despite not really meaning much in the grand scheme of things. It’s the perfect time for teams to show their stuff, flex their new rosters, and make a good first impression. It’s also the time for teams predicted to do well to absolutely collapse and fail, leaving a bad impression that may stick with them through the rest of the split if they don’t turn it around quickly. There are always excuses for a bad first week performance with plenty of chances to turn it around, but it certainly doesn’t help the public’s knee-jerk reactions.
As always, the first week of the LCS is one of the most important weeks in the split despite not really meaning much in the grand scheme of things. It’s the perfect time for teams to show their stuff, flex their new rosters, and make a good first impression. It’s also the time for teams predicted to do well to absolutely collapse and fail, leaving a bad impression that may stick with them through the rest of the split if they don’t turn it around quickly. There are always excuses for a bad first week performance with plenty of chances to turn it around, but it certainly doesn’t help the public’s knee-jerk reactions. So of course, here are some knee-jerk reactions based on two games, including some predictions for the whole split. After all, if they suck now, clearly they’ll suck later. Teams can never improve, and FlyQuest will be the top team in North America.
Disclaimer: This review is of the Nintendo Switch version of the game and was played primarily in portable mode.
by Tanner Kinney Disclaimer: This review is of the Nintendo Switch version of the game and was played primarily in portable mode. YIIK: A Postmodern RPG is a game I’ve been following and anticipating for quite a while now. This game was never on Kickstarter, being mostly a passion project built by a small studio over the duration of five years. The game showed promise and was picked up by a publisher relatively quickly, and many people have been eagerly anticipating the game. Through much hardship and even a death in the family, the two brothers at Ackk Studios have done a ton of work to make their dream game come to life. And it shows; this game has a lot of genuine and honest heart and it was clearly constructed with love. That makes it all the more painful that the end result is a game that is so charming and captivating in presentation, but is also such an absolute trainwreck in writing that it came under a number of controversies within the first few days of release. It’s tonally inconsistent, frequently cringey, occasionally misguided, but absolutely captivating to watch in motion. A lot of games are described as trainwrecks, but only YIIK has been able to capture the “can’t look away” element of the equation. To sum it up in a way the game itself would: the two parallel universes where I love and hate this game exist in this universe at the same time.
by Tanner Kinney The opinions and views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not reflect the opinion of Byte or Byte's editorial board. Season 9 has (almost) begun, and that means it’s time for another year of drama, suspense, OMEGALULs, fully-stacked tears, and dozens of clown fiestas. The meta of the previous year became admittedly pretty stale, despite the previous Worlds Championship being one of the most high-octane tournaments in terms of action around the map. I feel I can speak for a lot of people in hopes that the meta of season 9 will be less focused on murder and more focused on better teams winning games. I personally don’t think Riot will do it, but they’ve surprised me before. Like with Patch 8.11, which made my duo partner nearly quit the game. Onto the power rankings, these were decided after a pretty lengthy discussion with a panel (Discord server) of experts (my friends), based off of a few qualities. We looked at the potential of the teams and the previous results of the teams and their individual players, along with keeping in mind the volatility of certain rosters and players. Although these are ranked traditionally, we grouped them into three groups since it is, admittedly, a pretty close call: The Top Three, The Middledogs, and The Bottom Feeders. Let’s just get into it.
Disclaimer: This review is of the Nintendo Switch version of the game, played primarily in handheld mode.
by Tanner Kinney Disclaimer: This review is of the Nintendo Switch version of the game, played primarily in handheld mode. The Tales series is one of the longest standing Japanese role-playing game (JRPG) franchises. Starting with Tales of Phantasia on Super Famicom, the series was successful in Japan, but as with other storied franchises like Shin Megami Tensei, it didn’t get big in the West until the GameCube/PS2 era. Since then, the franchise has had a number of great games like Tales of Symphonia, Tales of Xillia, and the most recent entry with Tales of Berseria, but it still feels like they just blend into the background compared to bigger titles. So, it was a surprise to see Microsoft give a spotlight to Tales of Vesperia: Definitive Edition during their E3 showcase. It makes sense given that Vesperia was originally a 360 exclusive, but this release brings the Japan-exclusive PS3 port to all of the modern consoles for the first time. After playing through much of the Nintendo Switch version of Vesperia, it’s safe to say that this is definitely one of the best Tales games out there. However, compared to other big JRPGs and even its own series, Vesperia is missing a hook to keep a player fully engaged.
The biggest cinematic joke of the past decade has got to be the DC extended universe (DCEU). It’s gotten to a point where beating up on Warner Bros’ pathetic attempt to cash in on the extended universe trend set by Disney-Marvel is just stale and sad. Wonder Woman almost doesn’t even seem like it was a real movie because it was actually good, despite being forgotten almost immediately due to DC’s cinematic disaster of Justice League polluting the waters not even six months later. The promising Shazam! trailer at Comic-Con this year was paired with a trailer for Aquaman that looked just as schlocky and terrible as the rest of the DCEU. Needless to say, hopes for this being a good movie were at rock bottom.
by Tanner Kinney
Disclaimer: This review contains spoilers for Mortal Engines.
by Tanner Kinney
With the holiday season rolling around, a great last minute gift to grab is a video game. Even those who aren’t super game-inclined can get a lot of use out of a new game console or new game. The only question is deciding which games are naughty (read: terrible) and which games are nice. Here’s a quick guide to great game purchases this holiday season.
by Tanner Kinney With the holiday season rolling around, a great last minute gift to grab is a video game. Even those who aren’t super game-inclined can get a lot of use out of a new game console or new game. The only question is deciding which games are naughty (read: terrible) and which games are nice. Here’s a quick guide to great game purchases this holiday season.
The opinions and views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not reflect the opinion of Byte or Byte’s editorial board.
by Tanner Kinney The opinions and views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not reflect the opinion of Byte or Byte's editorial board. Pokemon is one of the most beloved game franchises of all time. Millions around the world are engrossed in the franchise, whether it be through the main series games, getting deep into competitive battling, or valiantly trying to reclaim to local gym at the Pizza Hut for Team Valor in Pokemon Go, it’s hard to escape the franchise. I’ve never stopped loving Pokemon, and of course have my own personal favorites, but that’s lame to talk about. Personal favorites usually suck anyways and are low-tier trash Pokemon. Today, we’re taking a different approach to selecting the best Pokemon. To celebrate the release of another Gen 1 remake/sequel/reboot in Pokemon: Let’s Go Pikachu and Eevee (pronounced roughly like “Ay-vay,” as shown by the first trailer for the game), we’re going to analyze using hard science to determine which ten Gen 1 Pokemon are objectively the best. This hard science will include exclusively classic Gen 1 Pokedex entries, competitive tier lists, anime appearances, and strength in the manga Pokemon Adventures. In some cases, Gen 1 logic (Psychic-types having only one weakness, broken critical hit system, etc.) will be used to determine Pokemon strength. There will also be no ties, because ties are a cop-out and there’s always a way to decide, objectively, which Pokemon is the best. By deciding objectively, not only is this list superior to biased “top ten Pokemon” lists, but surely no one on the internet can argue with the hard science presented in encyclopedia entries written by actual 10-year-olds and then interpreted by nerds on the internet. There are a few noticeable absences though, and I’ll get those out of the way now: the legendary bird trio (Articuno, Zapdos, Moltres) are absent because to dispatch two of three of them you just need to chuck a rock at them. Mewtwo is also absent because this list is organic and GMO-free, for your health and mine.
