The DiZeeZ'D Humor, Video Game, and Videogame Streaming Blog

 Riddlewood Manor: A Horror or Humor Game? Jumpscares and Hilarious Moments      I'll admit I wasn't sure about what I was getting into with Riddlewood Manor. Tis the season to be horrific, so I was happy to receive a key from Stride PR to check out the game. I'm no fan of jumpscares, so I'm extremely happy the game provided a jumpscare alert so I could whip off my headphones and brace myself. My viewers at times love to use my alerts to make me nearly lose my lunch. Downwards. I was excited to jump into the first horror-based game for the 'ween season. Plus, puzzle games are kind of my thing (you did  get that it was a puzzle game, correct?). As one of the few keys I've received for the season, I wasn't sure what to expect. Expect the Unexpected: Almost Horror Riddlewood Manor  needs no tutorial (although it has one) but it's a straightforward adventure/horror/humor game that throws in some mostly intuitive puzzles. There's not a lot of challenge he...

Arkane's Next AAA Game Didn't Deliver on AAA There was a lot of interest surrounding Arkane's next title, Redfall,   but I didn't really buy much into it. I find that reserving a lot of thoughts behind hype is probably best since media coverage can definitely skew final product comparison . But after recently resubbing to gamepass, I realized Redfall was in that library and foraged into the game knowing very little. Like many, I was disappointed. There were a lot of promising systems in the game like character abilities, a wealth of different weapons, and an open-world style of approach. Unfortunately, everything seemed extremely half-baked. I kind of just stuck to one shotgun because it had an awesome skin and I could one-shot nearly every enemy. The vampires in the world weren't all that challenging, either. Fire a few shells off and then finish with a jab with a stake-mounted weapon.  Character abilities didn't seem all that useful either (I played Jacob Boye...

 I'll admit that I'm no expert at conventions, although I've had my fair share to understand what are the "dos" and "not-dos." I've had somewhere around 30 under my belt, including E3, TwitchCon , BlizzCon, MLG, IndieCade, Playstation Experience, Gamestop Expo, and even some renewable energy conventions. Some of these I've attended as a journalist, some I've attended as an exhibitor, and others I've just attended personally. The intents of attending a convention generally determine what you'll bring with you and other details, but as a whole I think that this can suffice as a guide for how to prepare for your first convention. Preparing For Your First Convention: What to Do and What Not To Do Water--And Very Little Else My absolute worst mistake when I attended my first E3 was immediately going for an energy drink.  Often times outside of a gaming con there will be Bang, Monster, Red Bull, Rockstar vendors just giving out cold cans a...

These are never the easiest to write. About a month ago, I was playing Rogue Legacy 2 when I started to notice my energy for the past several streams was horridly low. 3 hours into a stream and my interest in streaming dropped, my personality went out the door, and all I wanted to do was to lie down. I realized the past several streams I had been energetic, talkative, and communicative to all of zero people. Every time I started stream it was 15 minutes to start and another 10 or so for announcements. So, literally, 25+ minutes every stream went to nothing. Twitch streaming isn't easy in the least, and for someone that has a mellow energy level, stretching on into 5-6 hours just gets draining. I needed a month off to re-think a lot of things—primarily what Twitch meant to me. Here's my internal struggle, and I never seem to settle with it. Getting Over The Mental Hump: Deciding What I Want with Twitch When I first saw Twitch, I didn't even realize what it was. Okay, you...

 A Look at Guerrilla's Smash Hit I'll admit I'm biased. I originally played the first Horizon (Zero Dawn) upon it's release, knowing that the game would be something special. I had seen it advertised at conventions in the past and had a strong feeling that if Sony was going to pump millions of dollars into its advertising, the game would be phenomenal. I was right, and so when the second was announced, the only action I cared about was procuring the game so I could stream it on Twitch . Because of the first game, I'm heavily biased about the second. But that doesn't mean I still can't have a critical eye for Horizon: Forbidden West, and so before I jump into the positive aspects of why I make sweet love enjoy this game, I'd at least like to provide what I hated . Which, admittedly, isn't a lot. What I Hated About Horizon: Forbidden West Lens Flares For anyone that has picked up a Horizon game, you'd probably think it had a lot of influence from ...

 What Will the Future of Videogames Look Like? This isn't a new question by any stretch. I'm reminded jokingly of the Playstation 9 commercial which was a very tongue-in-cheek commercial for the PS2. Admittedly, we're somewhat close to extreme immersion video games with VR arenas popping up all over the world, but something "Matrix" style won't be around for at least 50 years. We've just begun to see the emergence of twitch streaming where people literally make money playing video games , so streaming has a long way to go first before we can see something close to full immersion. But for now, I think we can fill in some of the gaps to see where the future of gaming might head. The Future is Definitely About Diversity I think it took the 2010s for people to recognize that gaming wasn't just about white guys doing their thing. With the rise of social media, people became a little bit more "internet aware." I think that was the biggest "fas...

  This is a difficult topic for me for various reasons. Probably the most glaring reason that it's difficult for me is that I, among others, have been going through motivational slumps in the past several months when it comes to twitch streaming . For others, their stream is entirely a business so the motivation isn't really a factor; if you don't stream, it affects your standard of living. For others, especially those that are trying to establish their selves by "doing the grind," motivation comes and goes. It's never an easy answer to the motivation question, but I think I've been able to whittle motivation when it comes to twitch streaming down to 3 methods. Here they are: 3 Methods to Motivate Yourself Streaming A Quick Guide to Getting Back on the Twitch Track So, as before, these are 3 methods or ways for those of us that are trying to push the envelope when it comes to streaming—not the ones that are well established and make a living from full-time...

CyberPunk 2077: Meeting My Expectations I avoided the hype. Stuck to what I understood about CD Projekt Red. Recognized that this was an 8.5 year development. Didn't stick to the lore. And admittedly, Cyberpunk 2077 met my expectations which, to be transparent, weren't all that high. The first demo I saw at E3 was arguably the worst demo I've ever seen—unresponsive AI, a crash mid-demo, and a poorly-matched pair of people representing the game—and so I felt a lot of problems might carry forth into the finished game. Whether or not I could stream the game on Twitch was also a concern, because if a game is going to launch poorly, you won't be getting much of an audience either. Sure enough, Cyberpunk 2077 launched unfinished. 8.5 years is a long time for a single release, and at that point, you have to wonder what's cooking in the kitchen. But I'll approach the most important question about the game that's on a lot of peoples' ...

 A lot of you who follow my content are familiar with how I'm an absolute geek over cloud-based game streaming services like Stadia, and so Amazon's Luna was a welcome competitive answer to it. I've been trying the service over the past few days and I have some initial impressions about it. Initial Impressions of Amazon Luna Positives Right off the bat, I think that Luna has a much stronger user interface than Stadia. Google's streaming service was originally marred by very large game icons that seemed to compensate for the lack of titles on the platform's launch. That's not to say Luna is much better; it's still an image grid, but it seems a little more aesthetic because the images are more panoramic  than card-like . It's a small gripe, but we're dealing with entertainment here and some people get extremely picky about UI. Card-like images don't do well for the games on Stadia. I'd expect Luna to soon have a search bar just like Stadia does...

Before Warzone, the last Call of Duty videogame I played was Call of Duty 3, the WWII version released in 2006. I probably played it for 5 minutes until I decided I had better videogames to play. This was well before streaming on twitch was a thing , and so I didn't bother making content from it.  Well, 14 years later, after several CoD reiterations, sequels, versions, and other additions to the IP, I was reluctant to try out Warzone, even though the game was free.   After basically giving up on CoD, I was pleasantly surprised with Warzone. One game, entirely free, that I enjoy playing with friends.  That doesn't suggest the game is inexpensive if you decide to purchase battle packs. I'm not well-versed on all the extras you can purchase with the packs available in Warzone, but it's clear you can spend much more than the price of a standard video game.   However, my understanding is that you won't suffer a bad gameplay experience if you don't spend money on...

It's hard sometimes to say the right words when so much turmoil happens around us. The vast majority of people today haven't lived through a global pandemic. And even though in the middle of the day I can walk outside and recognize the beauty of my neighborhood and how clear the skies are, it's painful to know that we're just barely getting by with what we have. I guess you could say I'm one of the lucky ones. 95 percent of my work is online, so I can take it home with me. Most of what I enjoy doing is indoors, so the worst of what I've seen with this year amounts to a vitamin D deficiency. I've enjoyed more time streaming on twitch lately, mainly because gaming during a pandemic is kind of the default.  In this post, I'm going to explore my thoughts on 2020, and see if I can make sense of the madness going on around me. What Gaming Means During a Pandemic The absolute best outlook I can glean from gaming during this time is that I have more time to do ...

Mutazione by Akupara Games I'm vaguely reminded of Gabriel Garcia Marquez and his wacky tales with  Mutazione , an interesting adventure game from Akupara Games and developer Die Gute Fabrik. I recently  livestreamed it on twitch  for a few nights and had some remarks about it.    Marquez's largest narrative device was magical realism, and that's what you'll see in a lot of  Mutazione.  Magical realism is a concept where supernatural events happen in the natural world. A lot of that happens in this game, which tells the story of a girl (Kai) that visits a strange island in response to a sick relative's request. That's about as realistic as the game is because once Kai arrives on the island, she's greeted by friendly mutants, humanoid beings, and plants that do a lot more than just decorate the island. The backstory is that a giant meteor hit the island and affected the lives of everyone, changing humans into mutants over the course of many years. ...