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 …
I used to be one of those people who wrote off the Musou series as “boring” and “repetitive”; a mindless button masher with little going for it beyond the brief satisfaction of swatting enemy grunts away like flies. I’ve come to appreciate the series a lot more in recent years, though, …
The original Bullet Soul was a game with some neat ideas, but it didn’t execute on them as well as it could have. It was a typical bullet hell shooter in a lot of ways, but it emphasised the negation of enemy bullets as much as it did evasion and …
Harley Quinn is one of the best and most interesting characters to come out of Batman’s gallery of villains. Since her first appearance in Batman: The Animated Series, she’s appeared in comics with regularity, and she’s headlined a few books of her own. Once a villain, The New 52 and …
In a world where Netflix and Spotify dominate the television and music markets, it’s only a matter of time before the subscription approach becomes commonplace for games as well. There are a handful of services out there already, but between the technical hurdles that games present and the misty details …
I have fond memories of playing NES Golf as a kid. I knew nothing about golf and never had an interest in the real-life sport, but there was something about the way that game boiled all the complexities of golf down to simple, intuitive game systems that just hooked me. …
Mary Skelter: Nightmares is one of my favourite dungeon crawlers in a long time. Granted, I don’t play a huge number of them and I may have missed some other gems over the years, but I can’t think of any other dungeon crawler that’s captivated me as much as Mary …
I don’t understand the hate that Knack got when it launched alongside the PlayStation 4 a few years ago. It wasn’t an amazing game by any means, and it could get repetitive, but it was a fun, competent action adventure romp with a few neat ideas that it executed well. …
