The Geekly Grind Celebrates National Video Game Day!

By: The Geekly Grind Team

National video game day has returned! In celebration, we decided to spotlight a handful of our favorite games. Let’s take a look...

Lowfat’s Choice

Anthem is the best game I've played recently.

It's actually not, but I can't afford to say bad things about it because Bioware needs the money so that Dragon Age 4 can have any hope of being released in a halfway-decent state.

You get to choose between four flavors of Iron Man, and you get to jetpack around a jungle. The jungle isn't huge, and there's only like eleven different enemy types in it, but they're cool enemies, and it's all very pretty.

The controls are tight. Zooming overhead as enemies shake their fists at you is quite empowering and fun.

The weapons are fun and adequate, though their variety isn't very impressive.

There isn't a plot. There are characters, but I don't remember any of their names. Sometimes they made me chuckle though. The main villain is tall.

Anthem is not bad game. You'll be seriously entertained for about 10 hours before the magic wears off. And it's honestly a fun 10 hours. For as long as the magic lasts, it's quite magical. Seriously, once Anthem is on sale, give it a try.

Do it for Dragon Age 4.

Rae’s Choice

I’m going to be very cliché here. These days, I’ve focused a lot on indie games and found so many fascinating stories and ideas and things that I’d normally love to highlight anytime something like this comes up. But if I had to pick something to talk about on National Video Game Day, it would have to be the series that was there at the very start – The Legend of Zelda. Specifically, Adventure of Link, but really I think part of what’s drawn me to Zelda over the years was that it’s updatable, and has so much room for new stories to be told. When I was little, I lived in Germany with my parents. My mom – who spoke no German – couldn’t work there, so she spent a lot of time at home with me, and our Nintendo became a huge part of bonding time. Watching her fight her way through dungeon after dungeon (always using the name Lete, instead of Link, though I never knew why) was a favourite pastime. As I grew up, I started to play the games myself. Ocarina of Time was one of the first games I ever sat up late, alone, trying to save the world. Some parts – like Gerudo Valley – I became an expert at. Hyrule was so magical, and as a girl with big dreams in middle-of-nowhere New York, I finally found the adventures I’d hoped for all my life. Obviously things have changed now. My mom hasn’t had time for video games in years, and money keeps me from always getting to buy the latest and greatest titles. But for all people say about video games keeping us unsocial and apart, when I think about staying home from school and sitting on the den floor with mom, laughing and learning the secrets of the triforce, I just remember how warm and happy those days were.

That said, there’s a whole big world of games out there that branches out far beyond the big series everyone already knows. Zelda gave me my start, but in the past couple years it’s definitely been the huge world of indies that’s kept me going. Go look for some new ones! Luna, World of Horror, and Boyfriend Dungeon are fun ones that are coming up soon. VA-11 HALL-A is what I’m currently playing, and it’s a strange, addicting blast. Games like Monster Prom and Best Friend Forever challenge the stereotypical boy x girl dating sim experience. There is SO much out there to try. Crawl around on steam! Check out reviews! Poke around our site! I promise there’s plenty out there for you.

TheJewphin’s Choice

Choosing a game to highlight for video game day is an extrenely difficult task. Do I gush about the puzzles in Obra Dinn, the subversion of Spec-Ops: The Line, or the weirdness of Killer 7? And yes, this introduction was a cover to highlight other games I chose to not discuss because today I wanted to remember Darkest Dungeon: a game about being a middle manager that is about anything but being a middle manager.

Darkest Dungeon's story would have you believe the game was about looting areas in a Cthulian world until you are strong enough to loot from the biggest and baddest. But at its heart, Darkest Dungeon is a game about being a manager who has to make tough decisions with people's lives for the greater good.

People slowly become their statistics. When people gather vices or problems from doing your dirty work, you consider whether you can deal with those vices, are willing to pay to fix them, or just dismiss them and get fresh meat. Often this decision boils down to how strong the character is or if they are useful to your party.

When I started Darkest Dungeon, I named my characters, healed their stress routinely, and suffered when they died. By the time I had reached level 6 with my first character, I was routinely ignoring my characters as they begged me to not send them back into the dungeon.

Darkest Dungeon is brilliant as a chracter study of the person playing it. Because you maintain a professional distance from these characters, you are incentivized to think of them as the dollars they bring in, not the humans they are. It's absolutely brilliant.

ThunderHeavyArm’s Choice

I’ll always have memories of Ring of Red. Taking place in alternate universe where World War 2 style of mechs we’re taking the place of tanks, you play as a team of South Japanese military agents. At first chasing after a prototype unit stolen during a training exercise, the team is swept into greater events to prevent the Cold War from turning hot. I enjoyed how each mech fought differently and had to be used differently from the others on your team. Whether it was sending in the 50 cal mounted destroyer of all infantry light unit or blasting them from long range with an American built heavy walker, there was no point where I felt disappointed in the game.

Mithrandiel’s Choice

There have been so many standout games in the last few years, from action epics like Horizon Zero Dawn and God of War to JRPG hits like Persona 5, and indie darlings like Stardew Valley and Doki Doki Literature Club.

With all of these amazing titles that rotate through my brain at any given moment, Hyper Light Drifter remains one of the coolest gaming experiences that I've had in recent memory.

With its retro design, superb worldbuilding and crisp combat, Hyper Light Drifter was a standout indie title that made its way into multiple platforms. Taking the approach of a dialogue-free story, it proceeded to build an engaging and thoroughly interesting world through pictures, lost relics, and a wonderful soundtrack.

Playing it felt like holding lightning in a bottle - that a retro, indie action RPG had actually given birth to a spiritual successor to A Link To The Past.

My follow up conversation with developer Alx Preston only solidified my appreciation.

I thought that after a few years my love for Hyper Light Drifter would fade, but here it remains, nesting comfortably in a corner of my gaming heart.

What games come to your mind on National Video Game Day? Feel free to let us know in the comments, or join our Discord!