When Portal 2’s credits rolled I, like a lot of people, sat on my couch craving for more from this universe. The characters, the world, and the unique gameplay of using portals to complete puzzles worked so perfectly with each other that it quickly became one of my favorite games of all time. Fast forward seven years later
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Developer Milestone is a really well-known within the racing game community, but they usually stick to the more realistic simulation portion of the genre with games like Ride 2 and MotoGP 17. The racing genre is quite diverse though, spanning from the aforementioned simulation titles to more arcadey ones like Blur and Split/Second, which I tend to
There is something unquantifiably striking about Zoink Games’ indie project Fe — even the still images give an air of mystery about the game’s natural landscape covered in purple tint. The creatures that inhabit Fe‘s rich world manage to be both familiar and alien, strange yet natural. And, perhaps the most important element: the perplexing nature of Fe digs deeper
Different cultures and their mythologies have survived for generations through storytelling, both orally and visually. Unfortunately, a side-effect of globalization is the loss of tradition and the intriguing stories of smaller peoples like Mexico’s Tarahumara, which has a very distinct and creative mythology surrounding it that not many people know about. That’s why developer Lienzo took
The Seven Deadly Sins: Knights of Britannia feels like it’s a relic from another time. A time when the PlayStation brand had a whole slew of sub-par or average anime titles from a variety of popular series like Samurai Champloo, Yu Yu Hakusho, Naruto, One Piece, and Full Metal Alchemist. You could name just about any anime that aired
Action games are a dime a dozen nowadays, but Bayonetta has always stood out. Compared to the likes of Dante or Kratos, Bayonetta is a much different kind of action game hero entirely — namely, one that has four pistols mounted to her hands and feet, and summons gigantic hair demons to do a good amount of
I won’t mince words: Past Cure is a bad video game. Merely calling it bad, however, doesn’t honestly explain just how shockingly terrible it is in every way. Between its nonsensical story, horrible gunplay, and animations from the PS2 era of consoles, Past Cure has blown my mind and reached new depths of awfulness that I didn’t know was possible
Developer Long Hat House’s Dandara is just a conceptually pleasing game. Rethinking the standard Metroid-type game from the ground up, Dandara approaches a near-saturated genre with new takes that genuinely flip gameplay on its head. Dandara is without a doubt a merger of old and new ideas. On one point of the spectrum, the game offers the standard (and still equally
Even though it’s 2018, I keep finding myself playing remakes or remasters of games that I regard as some of the best video games I’ve ever played. Video games should provide experiences that aren’t easily forgotten, and Secret of Mana on SNES was a game that did just that for me. Even if you haven’t
In 2014, Over the Moon Games released The Fall, an action-platformer starring A.R.I.D. (an acronym forArmoured Robotics Interface Device; also spelled Arid), an A.I. onboard a combat suit housing the human pilot Colonel Josephs. Her objective is to save the pilot by any means necessary. Without spoiling anything, the game tells a clever story that
After the success of the studio’s first project, Raw Data, many fans of the game (including myself) were hoping that Survios’ next project would be within the same realm; offering more refined gameplay and making improvements upon Raw Data. So, last year when Survios announced Sprint Vector it was safe to say it threw everyone off. Especially considering
On the surface, Crossing Souls makes quite the impression with its thoroughly polished rendition of the 80’s that mixes pixel art from a bygone era, vibes of a Saturday morning cartoon, and a story reminiscent of a Spielberg summer blockbuster. Crossing Souls undeniably time-travels and captures the period meticulously and truthfully, packing a serious dosage
Bright lights. Memories flash. Who is this? When is this? Who am I? Nothing is certain. As the daze clears, ahead of you stands the Demon King. People are screaming something… “Flash”? Is that my name? “Use your special ability! Why are you just standing there?! Is it the Fog?” What is happening? Sounds confusing, and
There was a moment during the middle of the PS3/Xbox 360 generation where niche RPGs were tough to find in the West. Instead, it seemed publishers released these games on popular handheld devices at the time, the Nintendo DS and PSP. It was around this time in 2010 that Atlus released a unique and interesting
Last year, I reviewed Pokémon Silver when it was re-released on 3DS. While I did feel that the game has dated in some areas, I also believed that the Generation II games were when the Pokémon series cemented itself as a mechanically solid series that was here to stay. That being said, Pokémon Crystal was surprisingly absent from the initial
The concept of “style over substance” is a real dilemma for the broader indie game scene. While finding a novel and satisfying gameplay hook is the bedrock of many smaller games, the task of finding that gameplay loop gets more difficult every year with thousands of indie releases across console platforms and Steam Greenlight. Because
Falcom has been increasingly making its mark on the Action RPG market in the west over the years. Now as we enter 2018, it didn’t take long for the first game by the developer to release in the West titled Zwei: The Arges Adventure. Now, it’s true that this isn’t one of Falcom’s more recent
Remasters and remakes have become a staple of the gaming industry over the past decade, but they tend to range in quality. I am one who likes revisiting old games that are near and dear to me, but rarely in those replay sessions do I feel the same emotions that I did when I originally experienced a
I’m a sucker for anything cyberpunk. And who isn’t? If there is one thing we can all agree on, it’s that cyberpunk is the king of science-fiction subgenres, designed and hand-given from the gods themselves. And three-person developer Deconstructeam has done the genre justice with its latest adventure game, The Red Strings Club, a narrative-focused
Of Mice and Sand -Revised- is a game that takes place in a huge desert wasteland on another planet inhabited by a number of different cute little anthropomorphic animals. Of those cute little desert denizens, you play as mice: short, curious critters with a knack for salvaging junk and turning it into something useful. The
Furi is everything I could ask for in a pocket-sized boss rush. It’s challenging, dynamic, beautiful in both audio and visual facets, and most importantly, challenging; there’s no fluff to be found. That matters a lot especially when you’re on the go. Having had Furi in my backpack the past couple of days has turned
Occasionally games like Celeste will come along that are deceptively simple but wind up housing something much more creative and thought-provoking. The most recent example for me would be Undertale, a title that on the surface looks like a simple GameMaker RPG title, but upon playing reveals that it is a unique game that challenged both genre and
Just six months have passed since the announcement of Monster Hunter: World at E3 2017, promising a revolution for the Monster Hunter franchise with the return to home consoles. The series has spent a long time on hardware that was underpowered for its time, and while the games were undoubtedly good or even great, the
In 2016, Square Enix and Tokyo RPG Factory released I Am Setusna — a love letter to the Japanese role-playing games of the 8 and 16-bit eras. Influenced by some of Squaresoft’s most notable titles like Chrono Trigger and Final Fantasy VI, the then-new developer brought a substantial, nostalgic journey with its inaugural release. Fast forward just
My first introduction to the SaGa franchise was SaGa Frontier 2 on PlayStation, and to this day I consider it one of my all-time favorite RPGs. However, with having limited to no internet access at the time, I was unaware of most titles that came before it; more specifically, the Romancing SaGa trilogy on Super Famicom.
We made it, everybody; Life is Strange: Before the Storm has concluded with Episode 3: Hell is Empty. If you haven’t played the previous two episodes, then I’m not sure what you’re doing on this page, and you should probably check out my reviews for Episode 1: Awake and Episode 2: Brave New World to see if
Ever since Cave Story and Mega Man 9 jumpstarted the retro-revival scene in gaming in the mid-2000’s, many titles have been created that call back to retro consoles from the 8 and 16 Bit eras. Kickstarter has also been home to many of these games, with one of its biggest successes being 2014’s Shovel Knight.
In a lot of ways, PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds feels like what we often see from “rags to riches” stories in movies, TV, books, and countless other mediums. Coming from a Korean studio with a name that’s both unique and perplexingly bizarre, PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds (or known collectively as PUBG) has gone from being a small, unheard-of entity to the breakout game
This year, Rockstar Games announced that it would be re-releasing four new versions of L.A. Noire; including one version that was released on the Nintendo Switch. As a fan of the original L.A. Noire, while I was interested in the Switch port, the version of the game that peaked my interest was that seven cases from the
I often find that Kickstarter titles can be some of the hardest games to review. Given the circumstances behind how these games (like A Hat in Time) are usually developed, I tend to find myself sometimes more forgiving than usual. Instead, I try to focus on whether or not the game’s creator followed through on the