Games reviewed… eventually
Shoot-em-ups, or shmups as they're called for short by people who abhor too many syllables, are another in the long list of genres that I have to confess I have no real experience of. I’ve attempted to play one or two - the original Gradius many years ago, Super Hydorah off the back of watching … Continue reading Paper Nebula
Adventure games are one of those genres that missed me. During their heyday, adventure games were without a doubt some of the biggest and most resonant titles on the scene, but that scene in particular was typically PC gaming. As a child I was exclusively a console player (I can remember our first desktop PC, … Continue reading Clam Man
Over the years I've been writing this blog I’ve reviewed a few of these games which use a deliberately old-fashioned style as a throwback to games of yore. I like to think I can approach things with at least a vague sense of awareness of what I think makes a good game and not just … Continue reading Tiny Dangerous Dungeons
The subject of politics in videogames is, to put it lightly, a bit fractious. As the years have progressed and peoples’ personal politics have skewed wildly due to factors like a rampant and uncontrolled press shored up by making profit from fascism and stoking hate, ineffective centrists doing their best doormat impression as they say … Continue reading Democratic Socialism Simulator
Building mystery and tension is a key component of any story. Without it, it’s all too easy for us, as readers, to give up; after all, if there’s nothing to solve, or to puzzle over, or simply to ponder, why bother reading on? It’s the mark of a great writer to craft that sense of … Continue reading One Night Stand
Sometimes you can get a general sense of what a game might be like from its title, or the first few images you see of it. Other times, well, you get Donut County. I really didn’t know, and nor do I think I could have guessed, what Donut County was about. Donut County (Android, iOS, … Continue reading Donut County
There’s nothing quite like flight in video games. All too often it can feel wrong in the execution, clunky, or awkward. But when being able to simply leap up and fly is one of the core tenets of your game, you’d better hope you get it right. AER: Memories of Old (PC, PS4 [reviewed], Switch, … Continue reading AER: Memories of Old
Bastion was one of my favourite games from its generation. Supergiant’s gorgeous, stunningly scored isometric action-RPG absolutely captured my heart when I played it, and of course Logan Cunningham’s rich narration helped seal the deal. And yet, Transistor has remained unplayed on my PS4 for years. I couldn’t tell you why at all. It’s time … Continue reading Transistor
Where do we draw the line between game and art? The debate is one which seems to attract divided responses, and perhaps one area which doesn’t help that conversation comes in the form of “art games”. Typically these seem to be games where the “game” part plays second fiddle to the “art”, but Bound seems … Continue reading Bound
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
The Almighty Backlog 