Roguelikes (or lites, depending on how you feel) toe a narrow line - replicating the punishing reset of a finished run without discouraging players as much as true Rogues. Hades is easily one of the best such games made in years and years, managing the same feat of slick and fun gameplay as the likes … Continue reading Hades
It's as clear as ever that there's an art to maintaining a player's motivation through the latter part of a modern open-world game. Over-large worlds and endless side-quests can easily lead to fatigue when they're forced upon you. Never has the drop-off felt quite so apparent as during the second half of Ghost of Tsushima, … Continue reading Ghost of Tsushima
There's a temptation when it comes to Ubisoft's open-world games to caveat my opinions with the fact that I haven't particularly enjoyed one for years. I'm confident it's not fully needed, but it's some context that might be welcome. Watch Dogs: Legion does absolutely nothing to dispel that lack of interest, its callow and unthinking … Continue reading Watch Dogs: Legion
There are many elements of life in lockdown that will likely stand out in my memory, once the benefit of retrospect is available. Living at home again, and the odd quasi-erasure of status it entailed; bonding very deeply with a scruffy ragdoll cat; watching every Star Wars movie with my family; relishing the freedom to … Continue reading Warzone will forever be my lockdown game
Oddly, it wasn’t even close. Only The Outer Wilds and Control held a candle this year, with exploratory, calm melancholia in space and eerie phantasmic combat. For mastery of play, though, for physical comedy and non-violent power struggles, Untitled Goose Game conquered even the most overblown of budgets and highly-advertised mainstream efforts. Developers House House … Continue reading Untitled Goose Game — 2019’s Game of the Year
I remember playing games a decade or more ago, when the extent of online walkthroughs available for most titles were ascii artwork-ridden fan chronicles on GameFAQs. Being cut off from easy solutions, with even the most dedicated guides having to paint pictures with their words. That remote sensation feels freshly relevant, playing through Outer Wilds. … Continue reading Outer Wilds
There's a surprisingly persistent perception out there that there hasn't been a good Star Wars game in aeons, perhaps since Knights of the Old Republic II. Never mind that Battlefront II was actually a fun, and extraordinarily high-fidelity team shooter that still attracts thousands of players today, because Jedi: Fallen Order has been greeted with … Continue reading Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order
There are remakes and there are remakes. And, increasingly, there are remakes. The form is becoming a new genre, or rather a new sort of videogame self-homage. It's becoming less and less eyebrow-raising to announce a new version of a beloved older game. The pressing questions are just whether it will be a graphical update, … Continue reading The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening
It's a peculiar quirk that Call of Duty, that most persistent of franchises, sticking around for years on end, always offering brutally quick online firefights, longs so clearly to be politically relevant. Core developers Infinity Ward, in particular, seem to feel a draw towards commentary on the state of the world, paired with a knack … Continue reading Call of Duty: Modern Warfare
It's one of those curious coincidences that in the same month that Control featured strange invasions fuelled by beings from something labelled "the astral plane", Astral Chain should emerge with exactly the same basic concept and language. The similarities effectively end there, though both do feature a degree of mystery and otherworldliness. Where Control is … Continue reading Astral Chain
