When Scarlet Nexus was first announced, I was intrigued but a little skeptical of the way it was being described: “brainpunk”. In a world where “cyberpunk” has lost all meaning—where it’s so often reduced to neon lights and “cool” body augmentations, with none of the depth and thematic weight that …
A game like Guilty Gear Strive comes with a lot of expectations. It’s the latest entry in a franchise that was once niche, but built a dedicated fanbase over the years to the point of now being a household name. That puts any new game in the unenviable position of …
Countless CRPGs throughout gaming history—from 1988’s Pool of Radiance to 2015’s Pillars of Eternity—have purported to recreate the tabletop roleplaying experience. Both developer and fan alike will tell you it’s through their slavish adherence to arcane rulesets, or their weak nods to the oft-hailed crown of ‘choice-and-consequence,’ or even how …
Ninja Gaiden: Master Collection is a great way to revisit some action game classics that have aged well, though the Switch version struggles. I have a confession to make: I’ve never really understood the praise for Ninja Gaiden. I played the first one on Xbox and hated it: I found …
The PS2 era was a wonderful time for 3D platformers. With the heightened power of a new console and those early teething issues largely resolved, the genre flourished: games like Jak and Daxter, Sly Cooper, and Ratchet and Clank opened the doors to colourful new worlds rife with things to …
Between the likes of Strangeland, Lost Words, and When The Past Was Around, I feel like I’ve written a lot lately about games dealing with grief—not to mention things like Adios and Olija that aren’t about grief per se, but traverse adjacent territory. And yet, no two of those games …
Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning was one of the first games I ever got a platinum trophy for. I’ve never been much of a trophy hunter, but when this dropped in 2012, something about it just grabbed hold of me and made me want to see and do everything there is …
The “Jaws effect,” named after Steven Spielberg’s terrifying shark-murder-fest, refers to the way that Jaws transformed an entire generation’s perception of these teethy sea beasts into something resembling horror. Ocean conservationists have been battling against misconceptions around sharks since the release of Jaws in 1975. Despite those efforts, this deeply …
I didn’t really go into Strangeland with any preconceived notions, other than a fondness for Wormwood Studios previous game, Primordia. It’d be a strange, surreal ride regardless, but coming in with no expectations, knowing nothing about it other than the title, and letting it just overwhelm the senses is Strangeland …
I often found myself markedly impressed at the scale of Biomutant. It is a game developed chiefly by a mere 20 developers, some of whom are alumni of Avalanche Studios, the team behind the Just Cause franchise. Yet despite the relatively small development team, the world they have created is …
