Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart
“It doesn’t get any better than this.” That’s what I thought in 2007 after playing Ratchet & Clank: Tools of Destruction. I had spent most of that winter season delivering pizza so I could have the cash to buy a PlayStation 3 on Black Friday. For Christmas my grandparents got me–per my request–Tools of Destruction and Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune. What a...[Read More]
Biomutant
Biomutant is a game I would recommend everyone play. It isn’t that Biomutant is an exceptionally dazzling game capable of redefining genres. Nor does Biomutant reek of any particular stench that would personally offend. What makes Biomutant such a solid recommendation is that, after a point, players will find themselves in the midst of a game attempting to fire at all cylinders and mostly ch...[Read More]
Rust Console Edition
My two minutes into Rust Console Edition I was killed by a bear. “Seems about right,” I thought to myself. Rust was released on PC nearly eight years ago, remaining on one of those many “why did it take so long to port?” lists. As a younger person with an under-powered PC, I watched the burgeoning survival genre with titles like DayZ and Rust, wondering why no one thought t...[Read More]
Resident Evil Village
In the grimy recesses of Eastern Europe or Spain or wherever it was, I thought to myself, “Leon Kennedy is having a really bad day.” All he wanted to do was save the President’s daughter. Instead he was met with a cult of weirdos who had bugs bursting out of their heads. And then he was stuck in a lake with a mutated reptile. Then he was being chased down by a mechanical leviatha...[Read More]
Immortals Fenyx Rising: The Lost Gods
The Lost Gods does one of the more admirable feats I’ve seen a piece of DLC accomplish in recent memory. Immortals Fenyx Rising has felt like experimental ground for Ubisoft ever since I played the game last December. As a Breath of the Wild-like, it hit the right notes while fitting nicely into the Ubisoft mold of open world games. The first DLC, A New God, integrated the base game’s ...[Read More]
Godstrike
Games like Godstrike are akin to mathematical puzzles. There’s a certain logic, a science behind the programming of the hundreds of balls of energy that encircle and threaten to harm the player. The fractal patterns of bullets spewing from a boss construct the constantly tantalizing bullet hells that delight the most masochistic. Being poor at math and, sometimes, pattern recognition, the ge...[Read More]
It Takes Two
Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots was probably the first game to make me weep. The microwave tunnel. Forcing Snake’s ancient body through a deadly claustrophobic space by mashing the triangle button… it was like sending an old friend to die. But that wasn’t the only thing going on. Split horizontally across the centerof the screen, Snake’s struggle–the gameplay...[Read More]
Outbuddies DX
After spending decades enamored with Super Metroid, it’s constantly puzzling that Nintendo continues to shun one of its staple franchises. The countless times I’ve read the term “Metroidvania” over the past few years in the indie game scene make me wonder why Nintendo hasn’t in some way attempted to rattle the corpse of 2D Metroid games for obvious profit. Holding the...[Read More]
Narita Boy
Players seeking a virtual oasis slathered in the most intricate and bizarre 1980s aesthetics will likely find solace in Narita Boy. Few games have oozed with such reverence from every line of code, like a sweaty cocaine-fueled partygoer dripping sweat from every pore in a club called Technoir. Imagine Grand Theft Auto: Vice City or Hotline Miami. Just without so much bloody violence. Instead, imag...[Read More]
Angry Video Game Nerd I & II Deluxe
The Angry Video Game Nerd is not for everyone. James Rolfe’s abrasive, vulgar, frustrated gamer character has been around for over a decade, lambasting terrible games from the 8-bit era and beyond. I’ve watched the AVGN for years, savoring his directorial talent and ability to make me want to play a truly awful looking game. The character is mostly parody but has spurned a YouTube gene...[Read More]
Immortals Fenyx Rising: Myths of the Eastern Realm
Upon completing Immortals Fenyx Rising: Myths of the Eastern Realm, I wondered if the series would become Ubisoft’s new flagship for taking players across the tomes of history. For so long, Assassin’s Creed has been a grand vessel for taking players on voyages to the past. We’ve seen the Crusades, Ancient Rome, the American Revolution, the French Revolution, and even Atlantis. Wh...[Read More]
Crash Bandicoot 4: It’s About Time (PS5)
Infuriating or ingenious, Crash Bandicoot 4: It’s About Time made its mark last year. The long hiatus of one of PlayStation’s iconic mascots came to a close in 2020 when Toys for Bob developed the fourth “mainline” Crash game. Surprisingly, time was kind to the bandicoot and Toys for Bob showed a great deal of care in remaining faithful to what made the series such a powerh...[Read More]