TechRaptor publishes a large range of reviews, news, and articles – but TechRaptor Originals are the articles you’ll only find on TechRaptor. Below, you’ll find each of our Original series of articles, covering something a little different under every banner.
Read on for our 10 current series!
Bullet Points is a regular, unscheduled series that takes a look at an unique aspect of a game and discusses its significance to the game as a whole, and often its significance to other games or gaming in general. It features everything from the biggest AAA games, to the smallest indie title, to more than likely a game you may have never heard before. The only unifying theme is that there’s just something about each game that they did either first, best, or it may be the only game with this feature. That could be a new spin on something old or an entirely new idea. Or, it could be something old that is done so well it is worth mentioning.
Video games have many icons; characters that are inspiring in several ways that provide a familiar face for the gaming industry. These icons are instantly recognizable, but beyond their visual design and use as player avatars, such characters offer a degree of depth that may often go unsaid.
With Character Select, the goal is to showcase some of the best video game characters ever made and dissect why they are memorable. Looking outward to other forms of media, literature, psychology, history, and other fields of study, these characters contain many recognizable traits that stick with us because of their use of familiar and well-ingrained tropes, while simultaneously providing a deep, recognizable character with the dramatic gravitas for players to connect with.
Coverage Club is the series where we shift our critical eye towards smaller games that deserve some attention. Each week, staff select two titles and provide honest first impressions in the style of our full reviews based on a few hours of gameplay. Games can range from brand new titles hitting Early Access to older hidden gems that never got their due. No matter your preferences, you’re sure to find something off the beaten path here.
The experience of discovering narrative bits in virtual environments is games’ unique contribution to the storytelling tradition. The design of the Thief games—from environment, to audio, to objects, to scripting, to player-character and AI—is the best foundation for games’ style of narrative. Looking Glass Studios’ Thief: The Dark Project and Thief II: The Metal Age, and, to a lesser degree, Ion Storms’ Thief: Deadly Shadows relayed narrative superbly via first-person immersion, stealth gameplay, and environmental storytelling.
Throughout Dark Narrative, Trevor Whalen will make the case for these games as he looks at their missions and the stories they tell. The thesis is that the design behind the Thief series lays the most effective foundation for interactive storytelling.
This series will jump back and forth between missions from Thief: The Dark Project and its Gold re-release, Thief II: The Metal Age, and Thief: Deadly Shadows. In addition to the games’ official missions, fan-made missions by users at “Through the Looking Glass” will also be considered.
Diary of Death is a thematic narrative retelling of an entire campaign of the boutique nightmare horror boardgame Kingdom Death: Monster. The world of Kingdom Death is dark and cruel, and the humans that exist there are at the bottom of the food chain. Diary of Death tells the story of one settlement of humans, Forlorn, beginning with a Survivor named Resolve and his first moments of recollection after waking up in a strange land of unbroken darkness.
There are plenty of spoilers to be found across the various entries of Diary of Death, so be forewarned if you have yet to experience the game for yourself. No two campaigns of Kingdom Death: Monster ever play out in exactly the same way though, so don’t worry about discovering all of the secrets of the game via this campaign re-telling. No single campaign could hope to touch the entire breadth and depth of Kingdom Death: Monster.
Some games are great, but others are memorable for all time. Whether it’s a new mechanic, a new presentation, or simply being in the right place at the right time, these are some game changers in a growing industry.
Game Changers is a series that looks at the very best of video games. Games that help define a generation, a franchise, or the very fabric of gaming as the whole. What it hopes to accomplish is to showcase some of the most popular games ever made and dive into their history. Looking at their development, legacy and the influence that they provide, Game Changers hopes to show why some games are more than just being great; they are important to the history of the medium.
In a world of AAA franchises and smash hit indie titles, a lot of games get lost in the shuffle once released. Some games are small fish in a big pond, using experimental mechanics or art style to get attention. Others are long forgotten franchises that have been swept under the rug over the years. Many of these games have a story attached to their development, and a history waiting to be uncovered.
Gaming Obscura is a regular, unscheduled series that aims to look at a lot of these forgotten, underrated, or otherwise obscure video games that may not have stood the test of time but deserve a moment in the sun. All video games have a story to them, and sometimes it’s the lesser known games that tell the best tales.
KekRaptor is our weekly satire series that often takes a look at, and makes fun of, current events in the gaming and tech worlds. They range from news, to opinions, to even reviews. Every article is clearly labeled in the title as part of KekRaptor and they will, in the vast majority of cases, only appear on Sunday.
Why “kek”? Kek’s story begins in Starcraft, which did not support Korean characters, so “hahaha” became “kekeke.” Where “kek” came into common usage, however, was in another Blizzard title, World of Warcraft. There, if you were a member of the Alliance using the “Common” language and a member of the Horde spoke to you in Orcish and typed “lol,” the Alliance player would see “kek.” Once it gained popularity, “kek” was synonymous with “lol” in many gaming circles beyond World of Warcraft.
The following is in chronological order with the newest article in the series first.
Of all types of games out there, role-playing games are perhaps the most enduring titles in the world today. Coming from the war gaming tabletop roots, RPGs come in many shapes and forms, focus on different mechanics, and provide a myriad of worlds and design philosophies that make it one of the most diverse subgenres in the gaming industry.
Playing Roles hopes to analyze the history and culture of video game RPGs, looking at tropes, mechanics, the philosophy of design, and even some retrospectives of classic RPG titles. As an academic series, it also hopes to challenge the notion of what a role-playing game is, offering a new thesis in how RPGs have a lot in common, despite their different mechanics, settings, and play styles.
