Nick Cummings
Nick is a writer, editor and designer based out of Portland, Oregon. He and Aaron started Silicon Sasquatch in 2008 after losing a bet on a chinchilla knife fight on the outskirts of Topeka. He still bears the mental and physical scars of that fateful night. Aside from videogames, Nick is also a lifelong musician and avid music consumer. He's the sort of person who reads twenty books at a time but only finishes maybe one per month. Feel free to drop him a line! He loves the attention.
Homepage: http://www.nickcummings.com
AIM: whymog
Posts by Nick Cummings
What Nick’s been playing
October 30, 2011 - 4:38 pm
Tags: Australians, Batman: Arkham City, Dance Central, Dead Island, Demon's Souls, Deus Ex, Human Revolution, Jetpack Joyride, Risky's Revenge, Shantae, The Gunstringer, Twisted Pixel, WayForward
Posted in Uncategorized | 1 comment
I’m in a bit of a difficult situation here as a writer. Here’s why: I’ve been playing so many games lately but haven’t had more than a couple hours to myself every day for the last couple weeks. I’d love to be writing about a lot of them, and it’d be great to put out [...]
So Long, Sera
October 23, 2011 - 10:37 am
Tags: Epic Games, Gears of War, Gears of War 3, Xbox 360
Posted in Editorials | No comments
I didn’t really want an Xbox 360 at first. Or at least, that’s the story I used to tell myself. I’m one of the idiots who actually made a point of tuning in to MTV’s sophomoric unveiling of Microsoft’s sophomore console in the fall of 2004, and the embarrassing spectacle left a pretty sour taste [...]
Visiting the Fantastic Fest Arcade
October 22, 2011 - 6:05 am
Tags: Austin, Fantastic Fest, Fantastic Fest Arcade, Fez, Journey, Octodad, thatgamecompany
Posted in Features | No comments
I almost stumbled upon Fantastic Fest completely by accident. Even though I’m on the fabled Alamo Drafthouse newsletter, I somehow missed the fact that there was a big, dorky exhibition going on just down the street from me in late September. At first I assumed it was only a film festival, but then I heard [...]
The Anti-Backlog: What’ve you guys been playing?
September 1, 2011 - 6:26 pm
Posted in Backlog | 7 comments
I’ve been incredibly busy these past few weeks, as have the rest of us, so I thought I’d just open things up for discussion. What have you been playing lately? Old or new, fun or not, we’d love to talk about it. If I had been playing games, I’d probably be neck-deep in the classic cyberpunk [...]
Catherine’s Eccentricities
August 14, 2011 - 10:30 am
Tags: atlus, catherine, design, PlayStation 3, social, Xbox 360
Posted in Editorials | 1 comment
I still don’t get Catherine. Even after a few solid hours spent learning the ropes of Atlus’ bizarre hodgepodge puzzle and dating-sim gameplay (think Q*Bert meets Tokimeki Memorial), I’m still unsure if this is a game I like. I’m compelled to keep playing, though, and that’s a success as far as I’m concerned. But it’s not the puzzle-game [...]
Sorry
July 24, 2011 - 6:25 pm
Tags: mea culpas
Posted in Editorials | 7 comments
I don’t mean to speak out of turn here, but things are kind of dead at Silicon Sasquatch. The why of it might not matter to you, but in an effort to be transparent, here’s where we’re at: Aaron’s working and living his life in Portland. I’m not sure what he’s been up to, actually, [...]
Three’s Company: How Pigsy stumbled in and totally ruined a great thing in Enslaved: Odyssey to the West
May 31, 2011 - 6:56 pm
Tags: building characters, Enslaved: Odyssey to the West, Journey to the West, Namco, Ninja Theory, relationships
Posted in Editorials | 3 comments
A good game tells the story of a lone protagonist, an archetypal hero the player relates to and guides toward success. Thanks to the immersive nature of video games, an experience doesn’t need to be perfectly refined to draw the player in. After all, many player characters are essentially faceless empty shells — digital vessels [...]
Baseless Speculation: An educated guess on the next iteration of game consoles
April 26, 2011 - 8:00 pm
Tags: Angry Birds, connectedness, Facebook, FarmVille, Kinect, PlayStation Move, Rovio, social networking, Zynga
Posted in Editorials | No comments
We’re well past the five-year mark on the current generation of game consoles, and with details of an imminent Wii successor starting to percolate, now is the time to consider what the next generation of hardware will entail. Traditionally, competing game console manufacturers have fought clear-cut battles over hardware, software, and add-ons. But with this [...]
Backlog: Dueling Backlogs edition
April 13, 2011 - 8:06 pm
Tags: Civilization Revolution, Crazy Taxi, Forza Motorsport 3, Nintendo 3DS, Pilotwings Resort, Pokemon White, Soul Calibur, The Road, Viggo Mortensen
Posted in Backlog | 1 comment
I really dropped the ball on this one, guys. Everything was all ready to go well ahead of schedule last week but I just never got around to compiling the damn thing and getting it out the door. I sincerely apologize; I take this stuff seriously, and I’m still trying to figure out how to [...]
Backlog: South by Southwest edition
March 20, 2011 - 12:03 pm
Tags: Dragon Age II, Dragon Age: Origins - Awakening, Dragon Quest Heroes: Rocket Slime, Fallout: New Vegas, Formula 1 2010, Gunstar Super Heroes, Mario Kart 64, Pro Evolution Soccer 2010, South by Southwest, SXSW
Posted in Backlog | 2 comments
Holy crap, you guys. I can’t believe I’m still standing. Not only did I just complete my second week at my new job, but I also subjected myself to two straight weeks of going out at night for music, food and drinks. I nearly overdosed on culture, having taken in a movie premiere, a dozen [...]