Games reviewed… eventually
How do you follow up a game as good as Arkham Asylum? Batman: Arkham City (PC, PS3, PS4 [reviewed], Wii U, Xbox 360, Xbox One) Released Oct 2011 | Developed: Rocksteady | Published: Warner Bros. Following the events of the fantastic Arkham Asylum Quincy Sharp, the former warden of the asylum, has ascended to the … Continue reading Batman: Arkham City
I have a real soft spot for the hard-boiled grim detective trope in narratives. There’s something almost mystical about that image and its portrayals in games - from the cynical poetry of Max Payne’s dialogue to the jaded ultraviolence of Booker in Bioshock Infinite - tend to result in some of my favourite characters in … Continue reading The Vanishing of Ethan Carter
Quick, hot take time! Batman’s great, ain’t he? Yeah, I know, it’s hard hitting stuff there, a real tough opinion I’m bringing out. Much like the rest of the internet, and like anyone who has ever read a graphic novel or seen a superhero movie I really like Batman. It should be no surprise then … Continue reading Batman: Arkham Asylum
Oh I have been looking forward to this one for a long time. Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla is just around the corner as of time of writing, and though I know I’m not terribly likely to play it on release - such a thing is the antithesis of the patient gamer ethos after all - it … Continue reading Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey
Games about quarantines, horrific viral epidemics, and people struggling to eke out a living in a crumbling, burning world kind of feel a lot less fantasy and a lot more uncomfortable these days. At least we haven’t had any vampires yet in real life. Vampyr (PC, PS4 [reviewed], Switch, Xbox One) Released Jun 2018 | … Continue reading Vampyr
I am a real sucker for a classic platformer. 3D platformers were a fixture in my youth, with games like Spyro, Crash, Sly Raccoon, Jak and Daxter, and Ratchet and Clank all games that were major formational parts of my gaming growing up. Some less successful titles did also cross my path, such as Ty … Continue reading Ape Escape 2
If there’s one thing the labyrinthine lore of Kingdom Hearts needed, it’s a prequel. Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep (PS3, PS4 [reviewed], PSP, Xbox One) Released Jan 2010 | Developed / Published: Square-Enix 10 years before Kingdom Hearts we join Terra, Ventus, and Aqua, three young students of the venerable Keyblade Master Eraqus. Terra and … Continue reading Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep
A year or so ago, I reviewed Injustice 2. While I loved its core gameplay and the concept at the heart of it, I had some serious reservations about the needlessly malignant and dark story and the hideous profligacy of microtransactions; now that the original game was released for free for a brief period of … Continue reading Injustice: Gods Among Us
Some games ask deep and meaningful questions about their players. Questions like “How much control do players have?”, and “Is the violence we express in games merely a symptom of our own, inherently cruel human condition?” Abzu shames all of these petty inquiries. Instead, it asks a truly monumental question of us as players. “What … Continue reading Abzu
I knew I was going to enjoy Control right at the beginning. Our protagonist, Jesse Faden, enters the harsh, brutalist headquarters of the Federal Bureau of Control late on one drab New York night. She steps through the doors and into a dull foyer, an abandoned desk ahead of her and a great seal adorning … Continue reading Control
