I’ve published hundreds of writing pieces over the years, which itself is both a blessing and a curse. It’s blessing in that I can point to the consistent stream of writing that I’ve produced, but it’s a curse in that it might be hard for people to find my most notable work. With that in mind I’ve created this page as a way to highlight the writings that I’m most proud of. Below please find a list of suggested readings, complete with descriptions and links to the original posts. This list will be updated a few times a year, so check back here every once in awhile to see which writing pieces earned a spot in my personal Hall of Greats.

Late to the Party
As much as I enjoy playing video games, I’m normally not able to play them when they first come out. In this series I write about the games that I’m finally getting around to experiencing.

Europe 2012
In 2012 I made my first overseas journey with a 3.5-month tour of Europe. My first website was originally dedicated to blogging about the trip and I published extensive records of everything I did. If you find the travelogue posts to be too long or boring, I suggest you check out Side Stories 2012, which is a collection of short, interesting tales of things that happened while I was over there.

Remembering Big O
Back when I was in college I watched an anime called Big O. While not the greatest show around, Big O has stuck with me over the years and I decided to write out my recollection of it.

Enslaved: Odyssey to the West
After I finished playing Enslaved: Odyssey to the West I knew I wanted to write about this gem of a game but my efforts faltered and for three years the writing piece sat unfinished in a folder on my desktop. One day I finally got my butt in gear and after about a week or so this post finally saw the light of day.

Europe 2015
I came back to Europe for a second time in 2015, visiting some familiar places as well as some new ones. Much like with the 2012 journey, you can check out Side Stories 2015 if you’d like to skip the long travelogue posts and just read some brief stories of notable events from the trip.

PSX 2015
The story of the first, and only, time I attended a video game convention.

Wolfhounds
Long ago my grandfather served in the Army during the Korea War. Before visiting Korea myself I finally talked with him about it and got some basic details of his service.

Games Deserving Sequels: Split/Second, Vanquish, and Mirror’s Edge
My first foray into the world of writing about video games came in February 2013 when I wrote a three-part series about games that I thought deserved to get sequels. It’s fascinating to see how far I’ve progressed (or maybe regressed) since those first writing pieces on gaming.

Top 15 PlayStation 4 Games
Everyone loves a good list, and this is my selection of my top 15 favorite games on PlayStation 4. I’m going to try to update this list once or twice a year, and anytime I do so I’ll change the link to the most recent edition of the list.

Asia 2017
In 2017 I traveled to Japan and South Korea for six weeks. Here you can find a collection of stories from the buildup to the journey as well as the journey itself.

Replaying the Classics
New games are great, but sometimes you just want to go back and replay some of your favorite games. In this series we take a seat in our comfy chairs while I tell you about the games I went back to.

Uncharted 4 – The Grand Finale
My review of Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End. Spoilers: it’s really good.

Updated thoughts on Destiny
I had played the base version of Destiny when I originally wrote about it in Late to the Party. Here I give updated thoughts on the game after having played through all of Destiny’s expansion packs.

Recipes
Over the years I’ve tried to pass on fragments of my rudimentary cooking skills in the form of recipes that I’ve published online. Currently I have recipes for white chocolate brownies, tejeringos, and infamous chocolate chip cookies.

Ricardo’s Travel Advice
I’ve had the privilege of going on three solo extended overseas journeys—two to Europe and one to Japan and Korea—and I’ve learned a fair amount from those trips on how to travel well. In this series I try to convey the bits of wisdom I’ve gained over the years in a format that will hopefully be useful to other people. Currently there are entries on travel basics, transportation, packing light, my personal packing list, clothing and laundry tips, banking, and keeping a positive outlook.

Asia 2017 Travelogue Posts
About a year after getting back from Asia I published a series of travelogue posts that chronicled my journey across Japan and Korea. The link connects to a post with links to all the individual posts.

Italy 2018 Travelogue Posts
In 2018 I had the privilege of guiding my parents on a two-week trip to Italy. We visited Rome, Florence, Siena, and Venice. Several months after we returned from the trip I got around to writing out what happened in each place we visited.