by Kael Lockwood | Dec 9, 2024 | Features, Reviews, Tabletop Games, Video Games
In an amazing turn of events, Kael and I made it through this year’s PAX West without a major disaster. For once, we played some games, watched a couple panels, ate some delicious snacks, and did not have to take a moment to say, “Hey, what the fuck?” about a hot new piece of gaming news, nor did any pets have to go to the ER. (more…)
Melissa Brinks is Sidequest’s editor in chief, co-creator of the Fake Geek Girls podcast, author of The Compendium of Magical Beasts, and an aspiring beekeeper. She once won an argument on the internet, and tweets at @MelissaBrinks.
by Kael Lockwood | Oct 21, 2024 | Reviews, Video Games
This is the first thing I noticed upon arriving in Grat Harbor: Magical Delicacy is a game of beauty, love, and warmth. Pixelated waves beat against the bow of the ferry, the grandfatherly civil servant Higge waited to greet me on shore, and I knew there was something magical here. This sense of magic followed me into every corner of Grat as I explored, eager to see what vista or hidden cove lay past the obstacles before me. (more…)
Kael is a writer, caregiver, and masters student in clinical mental health counseling. When not writing about games they publish the monthly newsletter This Great Web of Things, where they write about mindfulness, creativity, and mental health. They currently split their time between Kyushu and the Pacific Northwest, as visas allow.
by Kael Lockwood | Aug 19, 2024 | Roundtables, Video Games
How much time is too much time to spend playing a game? How short can a game be while still feeling like an interesting and realized world? These questions, oriented around the subjective experience of play, are not the kind typically brought up on the website formerly known as Twitter every time a new $14.99 indie game becomes the subject of… spirited… debate. Have no fear, though: the Sidequest gang has put pen to paper and fingers to keyboard to inject enough nuance into the subject to stop it from being a debate at all.
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Madison Butler is Sidequest’s self-proclaimed jock editor. She co-founded the blog Critsumption and once got really into powerlifting via Fitness Boxing for the Nintendo Switch. She posts about fiber arts @maddilo.bsky.social.
by Kael Lockwood | Oct 5, 2023 | Features, Tabletop Games, Video Games
Has there ever been a normal PAX? Has there ever been a year when some wild shit doesn’t happen personally or more broadly? I think not. But nonetheless, we persevere, dragging ourselves to the Seattle Convention Center (now split into three different buildings, because why not) despite whatever madness is going on in our own lives and the gaming world.
This year, we (Melissa Brinks and Kael Lockwood) made it to PAX to look at, and conceivably write about, games. But, as always, PAX West and its many madnesses had other plans for us. (more…)
Melissa Brinks is Sidequest’s editor in chief, co-creator of the Fake Geek Girls podcast, author of The Compendium of Magical Beasts, and an aspiring beekeeper. She once won an argument on the internet, and tweets at @MelissaBrinks.
by Kael Lockwood | Jan 25, 2022 | Features, Video Games
The dawning horror that I’ve doomed a galaxy is the defining feature of my Mass Effect experience.
Last time on Diary of a Hardline Shep, I covered Shepard’s super-judicial might and how it came at the cost of politically weaker species’ self-determination. Here at the end, only humanity is safe. And it all feels remarkably familiar. (more…)
Kael is a writer, caregiver, and masters student in clinical mental health counseling. When not writing about games they publish the monthly newsletter This Great Web of Things, where they write about mindfulness, creativity, and mental health. They currently split their time between Kyushu and the Pacific Northwest, as visas allow.
![A screenshot from the Cozy Grove press kit overlaid with "GET YOUR GAME ON" and "[COZY GAMES]".](https://sidequest.zone/wp-content/uploads/wordpress-popular-posts/107896-featured-200x0.jpg)
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